I tell you what, something is in the water here in DC – the pols are going more insane than usual. Chuck Hagel has been an enormous disappointment as a Rep Senator. But he earned his seat the old fashioned way and he has a right and duty to voice his opinions and stand up for what he believes. Just like Mark Dayton did, does, did… whatever.

Hagel has succumbed to the dreaded DC disease of listening to your handlers (who are eager for career advancement as well) and buying into their fantasies. According to Ankle Biting Pundits, the good Senator thinks he can run for President as an independent and win.

Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel is privately meeting with his top advisors and political contributors to discuss the prospects of an independent bid for the White House in 2008, a high level GOP source told me this morning.

According to the source, Hagel has already begun to posture himself as an independent, believing that by doing so he can tap into the perceived growing frustration voters feel toward both major political parties. Recent polls show widespread voter dissatisfaction with leaders of both the Republican and Democrat parties in Washington.

Hagel is foolishly naive. The state-by-state voting in the EC make a run for President by an independent nearly impossible. There is no party infrastructure in place and ground game like the one Bush put on in 2004 to take out Kerry.

And no party stalwarts are going to want to lose their positions of power to an outsider. What does a Republican Senate Chairman get from a Independent President (or President not from their party)? Is the Republican Senator going to want to have this non Republican President on the stump with him? I doubt it – at best a Indie Pres Hagel will be seen as a turncoat by the party establishment and fund raisers.

I say let Hagel learn his lesson in 2008.

He knows the media loves a self-loathing Republican.

Yeah, but does he know a majority of the voters in this country ignore the media’s preferred candidates (Dean and McCain)???