California Conservative

All the proof I need is a quote in this Newsweek article. Here’s the specific quote:

“Jon Bruning is just an ambitious and aggressive young man and he’s taken a gamble on Senator Hagel not running for re-election,” said Hagel’s political director, Kevin Chapman. “If Senator Hagel does run for re-election, then Jon Bruning will likely step down for the good of the party.”

To set that quote up properly, let’s take a look at that section of the article:

How substantive a threat does Bruning pose? No reliable independent sounding has yet been taken. According to a poll recently commissioned by Bruning’s office, he finds himself 9 percentage points ahead of Hagel in a head-to-head contest. A study undertaken by Nebraska’s Democratic Party has Hagel’s “positive” rating at 51 percent compared to Bruning’s 61.

Hagel’s camp dismissed both sets of data as unreliable and almost certain to change. Bruning, they argued, is an opportunist positioning himself to capitalize should Hagel decide to make a White House run or, perhaps, retire. “Jon Bruning is just an ambitious and aggressive young man and he’s taken a gamble on Senator Hagel not running for re-election,” said Hagel’s political director, Kevin Chapman. “If Senator Hagel does run for re-election, then Jon Bruning will likely step down for the good of the party.” (Bruning’s campaign replies that he is in the race to win, regardless.)

The truth is that they know Hagel has betrayed conservatives by being the media’s ‘Sunday morning darling’. They know that he’s voted against the war funding supplementals and voted with Ted Kennedy on immigration. (more…)