Last week’s Senate confirmation hearing on former Senator Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Secretary of Defense was contentious and nasty. Hagel almost certainly will be confirmed. But he was badly battered in the process. His former colleague and fellow Vietnam veteran John McCain bullied Hagel on the viability of the surge in Iraq. Lindsay Graham was furious over Hagel’s assertion of intimidation of Congress by the “Jewish lobby” and demanded the name of a singe senator who succumbed to that pressure. And rookie Senator Ted Cruz, after a full four weeks in office, charged Hagel with consorting with a former and controversial U.S. ambassador Hagel had not seen in years. Wow! [...]