The GOP Eugene McCarthy?

Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is expected to announce Monday if he's running for President or not...my guess is, he is.

Hagel is among the sharpest Republican critics of the Iraq war and supports many of the Democrats' proposals to withdraw troops and end the war.

Hagel has been compared to Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minnesota), who led opposition to the Vietnam War during Lyndon Johnson's presidency. McCarthy was one of the first major Democrats to oppose Vietnam and ran against fellow Minnesotan Hubert Humphrey for the 1968 Democratic Presidential Nomination, before losing his anti-war monopoly to New York Senator Bobby Kennedy.

Hagel is pretty much alone in his staunch anti-war position in the Senate. Although there are other Republicans, such as Gordon Smith of Oregon and Olympia Snowe of Maine, who are becoming frustrated and have lost faith in the Iraq policy, they aren't planning on running for President. (Smith is going to have a hard enough time keeping his Senate seat.)

Although most Republicans are still behind the war, Hagel could pick up enough frustrated Republicans, mostly moderates, to cost the moderate Rudy Giuliani the nomination, throwing to McCain or Romney (who I am still convinced will get the nomination.)

I do have to say though, in the rare event Hagel does end up getting the GOP nod, Democrats should probably be more worried about him than Giuliani. He's likeable.