Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel has always been considered to be a liberal Republican, who has even discussed impeachment of President Bush.

I could never understand how a liberal Republican would win a Senate seat when he’s from a very conservative state.

There are even rumors he might join Mayor Michael Bloomburg of NYC in a third party presidential run, although it’s all rumor about either of them as far as I can see.

Now comes word in a New York Sun editorial that the state attorney general of Nebraska, Jon Bruning, has stated that today he will announce his candidacy to challenge Hagel for the 2008 primary.

A poll conducted for Mr. Bruning shows him leading Mr. Hagel among likely Republican primary voters by 9 percentage points. Mr. Bruning assails Mr, Hagel for being, “The Republican that talks like a Democrat,” pointing to Mr. Hagel’s support for a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, as well as his discussion of impeaching President Bush. “He’s become arrogant and out of touch,” Mr. Bruning said. “His constituent services are very poor.”

Mr. Bruning also mentioned New York Sun editorials documenting the weakness of Mr. Hagel’s record on Israel, including a recent speech by Mr. Hagel before an Arab American group in which Mr. Hagel said that support for Israel shouldn’t be automatic.

In my mind support for Israel is a very important issue and I would not support a candidate who does not support Israel, even if he were conservative on everything else.

Mr. Hagel acts and sounds as though he is really a Democrat, which is fine. What isn’t fine is posing as a Republican in a heavily Republican state and doing it so he can get elected, then showing his constituents what he really is.

The argument can also be made he has been re-elected so his constituents should have known the second time around where he stood. It may be they did but he had no competition; I don’t know.

If the members of Congress would line up and join the party that most represents their ideas for governing this country we would probably see a lot of seats switching bottoms.

We have the Blue Dog Democrats who act quite conservative on many issues and would seem to be more at home in the Republican party.

We have the very liberal Republicans such as Snowe or Collins who would seem to be more comfortable as Democrats as far as their voting records show.

For whatever reasons they choose to stay a minority in their own party; maybe hoping to change the parties to a more centrist position, which would be fine by me. I’d like to see some cooperation in Congress and some actual governing for the people being done instead of all the grandstanding we see every day.

I’ve always loved politics, but I have found that love to be waning, especially in the past two years. Politics in the United States is now a blood sport and is not for the weak-hearted.

The problem is, once you look away from the far wings of either party you begin to see an America that wants progress from our government. We want responsible and upright people in our highest offices.

I personally like the idea of forced term limits and have mentioned that before. It’s time for the white-headed senators and congressmen and women to go home and live under the laws they have passed.

Anyway, as a Republican, I welcome the challenge to Senator Hagel.