Sunday morning this week on C-Span Washington Journal, I spent some quality time with former Project for a New American Century Executive Director and now AEI scholar Gary Schmitt discussing Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be President Obama’s Secretary of Defense. C-Span’s Steve Scully anchored the discussion — which was wide-ranging and in my view, enlightening….

There is a brewing storm over Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Elliott Abrams‘ intemperate remarks about Senator Chuck Hagel — arguing that the Secretary of Defense nominee must prove he is not an anti-Semite. We’ll comment on that at another time.

I have nearly always, mostly, with only a few exceptions really loved The New Republic over the years.

Jason Reed/Reuters Admiral Ze’ev Almog, or Aluf Almog in Hebrew, speaks in a deep baritone, no-BS, command-authority voice that must have intimidated enemies and political rivals inside and outside Israel’s command structure over the past decades.

Reuters Something rare just happened.

Reuters/Jonathan Ernst Former George W.

For those glued to news on Boxing Day, I’ll be joining TIME International Editor Jim Frederick to discuss the “borking” of various White House potential nominees on MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews.

The article today by Tom Friedman at the New York Times, “Give Chuck a Chance,” has put a solid, revitalized wind in Chuck Hagel’s potential SecDef nomination sails.

The letter below ran as a Letter to the Editor at the Washington Post yesterday, on 25 December.  While this letter criticizes the Washington Post for this article and defends Hagel’s character, the more interesting line I think is the one implying that the White House tolerance of pre-official nomination torture. Regarding the Dec.

Merry Christmas to All from the pups — Oakley, Annie, and Buddy. (Oakley is now 10 and doing great!!) And Merry Christmas from me as well.