Rowan Scarborough, Washington Times

The sudden fall of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was unexpected because he spent years in Washington getting close to Barack Obama while upbraiding the president’s predecessor.

At one time an almost-lonely Republican senator from Nebraska who was not often quoted, Mr. Hagel reached news media stardom by becoming President George W. Bush’s harshest intraparty critic.

Hagel, who announced his resignation Monday, emerged as a fixture on the Sunday TV talks shows. His speeches on what he considered the folly of the Iraq war troop surge were widely quoted. To Washington’s liberal establishment, the once-loyal Republican had transformed into a foreign policy master.

On the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, he formed an alliance with Joseph R. Biden and, most importantly, a new senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. Mr. Hagel declared himself a disciple of now-Vice President Biden’s foreign policy beliefs and accompanied Mr. Obama on a well-publicized fact-finding trip to Iraq.

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  Chuck Hagel, Exit Chuck Hagel: Marriage built on trashing Bush crashes on the shoals of reality, LIFE, WorldTribune.com