Drinking With Hagel

A few months ago, I wrote about how you could feed yourself just by attending all the various events on the DC think tank scene. And the same apparently goes for reaching your drink quota, as well. Tonight I attended a talk by Senator Chuck Hagel at the National Press Club, sponsored by the Eisenhower Institute. Hagel was promoting his new book, America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers. (I haven't read it yet, but it has to be good simply because it has two sub-titles).

The Eisenhower Institute and the Press Club put together a really nice event. The drinks were flowing and the appetizers were being scarfed down way before Hagel took the stage. Simply put, a couple of glasses of wine and a lecture by Senator Hagel = a quality evening. Not quite sitting around the pub swapping stories with Uncle Chuck, but still a nice, relaxed night of "straight answers." Hagel is one of those great politicians who speaks his mind and says what he believes. In a sense, he rises above party politics because a random guy who walked into the talk off the street tonight wouldn't have been able to identify his affiliation. He cares about this country and that's the most imporant thing.