Sunday airtime has tuned America in to Hagel (R-Ne)

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Published Sunday
August 27, 2006

Sunday airtime has tuned America in to Hagel

BY JAKE THOMPSON

WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

WASHINGTON - Chuck Hagel is such a regular on Sunday morning TV talk shows that when he arrives at a Washington studio without his favorite sidekick, CBS's Bob Schieffer or CNN's Wolf Blitzer will ask: "Where's your son, where's Ziller today?"

Hagel has been a U.S. senator for 91/2 years. That's 490 Sundays.

Of those, the sober-faced, deep-voiced lawmaker, a one-time broadcaster comfortable before the hot lights, has appeared on a Sunday TV show 102 times, according to a running count kept by his office.


Sen. Chuck Hagel


ll those appearances have given the Nebraska Republican and potential 2008 presidential candidate astonishing visibility for a lawmaker who leads no significant Senate committee, holds no Senate leadership post and hails from a sparsely populated prairie state.

leg up! He was 'overwhelming' the winner in his first contest even getting more votes from blacks than by any republican in the history of the state-his first time out..could not be because he OWNED the voting machines, could it?

is the BushAmerican way. You don't think democracy is really part of the agenda, do you?

:hi:

would be 2000), fool me twice (that would be 2002 actually)...never get fooled again"...I was NOT fooled in 2004, but we are ALL fools for letting it slide!

At least one Hagel colleague and 2008 presidential prospect has been on the shows more - Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Hagel's count of 102 Sunday appearances includes programs on the three major broadcast networks - ABC, CBS and NBC - plus Fox News Sunday and cable's CNN.

McCain, meanwhile, logged 124 appearances from 1997 through 2005, according to a study by the Washington-based group Media Matters. But it counted only appearances on ABC, CBS and NBC - not the Fox or CNN programs that would give McCain even higher numbers.

Hagel's tally in the same study was 48 appearances. He was the only one in the top 10 who hasn't run for president, hasn't been a congressional leader or committee chairman or hasn't held a senior post in the Bush administration.

Still, such widespread exposure is no substitute for an on-the-ground, fundraising, hand-shaking, baby-kissing presidential campaign.