Earlier this month I wrote this brief op-ed piece about the dismal support John McCain is receiving from his Republican peers in Congress and the Senate. Yesterday the Washington Post published a story that adds another chapter to the story.

Frequently I've commented on the challenges facing the Republican Party with John McCain as their candidate. This elderly man is frequently out of touch with what he's saying, requiring his campaign staff to reconvene the press so they can say their oft repeated line of, "What the Senator meant to say." Then there's the issue of his frequent loss of temper, even publicly directing crude, vulgar, demeaning language at his wife.

As recent as last week he claimed the Iraq war was not about weapons of mass destruction or a clear and present danger to the United States, according to John McCain it was about oil. The deaths of over 4,000 Americans for the benefit of big oil companies seem more like something to feel profound shame about, than boast of it during a campaign speech. Volumes can be written on his wrong assessments of the Iraq war, yet he feels it's something worth continuing 100+ years.

The economy is in a challenging phase, and John McCain has publicly admitted he knows little about economics, but he's indicated he might read a book on the subject. The public's perception of his candidacy is that he represents a third term for the Bush policies that only 28% of Americans approve of. To date, John McCain has made no attempt to challenge that perception.

But perhaps the biggest challenge facing John McCain and the Republicans comes from within. In selecting John McCain as their party's standard bearer, they chose a candidate they can barely tolerate. Today, MsNBC released a story that illustrates that fact.

Of the 248 Republican members of Congress and the Senate, only 37 have actually contributed any financial support, of any amount, to John McCain's campaign. Perhaps the leaders of the Republican Party recognize how futile the effort is, and have simply decided to sit this one out. When the Democratic candidates appear at rallies, they're campaigning before record numbers of enthusiastic voters. McCain's rallies seem to have all the rah-rah of a funeral. If John McCain can't even excite his party's leaders, and fellow members of the Senate and Congress, he's got quite a challenge trying to create enthusiasm with America.

Only 37 out of 248, by any standards that's anemic.

One of the most reasonable Republicans in the Senate is Chuck Hagel from Nebraska. He's a moderate, and has never embraced the neo-con faction that has hijacked his party. Unlike the majority of Republicans currently serving in Congress and the Senate, Hagel has never hesitated to work towards a consensus including the Democrats. The neo-con approach, crafted by individuals such as Karl Rove, has been to destroy opponents and simply run over them. That philosophy has largely been responsible for the gridlock in Washington, and spilled over across America in creating the most divisive climate since the Civil War.

Before the presidential primaries began, Chuck Hagel was frequently talked about as a potential candidate. He's experienced, smart, a veteran, and respected, but he chose to not run. He would have been a formidable candidate with no skeletons in his closet. Instead he's announced his decision to retire from the Senate at the end of his current term.

By PAUL KANE and BEN PERSHING / The Washington Post
Thursday, May 29, 2008 - 02:25:52 pm CDT

WASHINGTON — Once upon a time, Lilibet Hagel was a big supporter of John McCain. Back in the fall of 1999, the wife of Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., gave the Arizona Republican's 2000 presidential campaign $1,000, the maximum donation allowed at the time. These days, however, Lilibet Hagel is a proud donor to McCain's likely general-election opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. On Feb. 11, the day before the Virginia primary, Lilibet Hagel donated $250 to the Obama presidential campaign, giving her McLean, Va., address to the Federal Election Commission. Two weeks later, she gave Obama another $250, according to FEC records. Her donations are the latest twist to the long-running saga of Chuck Hagel's drift from McCain. He was once considered McCain's closest friend in the Senate — Vietnam veterans with adjacent offices.

Now Hagel is a lonely voice against the Iraq war in the GOP conference.

Like his wife, Chuck Hagel gave $1,000 to McCain's 2000 presidential campaign. But in 2008 he not only has not contributed but has also pointedly declined to endorse McCain, citing their very different views on Iraq and, more broadly, McCain's support of the Bush White House's handling of global diplomacy. Recently, Chuck Hagel, who is retiring at the end of this year, has defended Obama's approach to diplomatic engagement with rogue nations such as Iran, a strategy McCain and President Bush have likened to "appeasement." \

Some even have speculated about an Obama-Hagel ticket. But for now, the only official Obama supporter in the Hagel home is Lilibet.

If you're John McCain, that's hardly the kind of news story you'd like to see splashed across the Washington Post. But, that's the current condition of his campaign as he continues his struggles to just get his own political party to tolerate him. It seems unprecedented to have a presumptive nominee, that at this stage doesn't even have the unifying support of his own political party behind him. Until McCain accomplishes that feat, or unless he can pull it off, he's likely to meet little success pulling other voters in his direction.

he will do just fine given the competition!!!!