Chuck Hagel's not exactly who you'd call a lefty. You can check out his voting record here.  But this is what he has to say about the Bush administration:

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a leading Republican lawmaker who has come out against the Iraq war, had some harsh words for the Bush White House Wednesday, calling it "one of the most arrogant" administrations he's ever seen.

Guess whose phone is probably about to be tapped. But I digress:

"I would rate this one the lowest in capacity, in capability, in policy, in consensus — almost every area, I would give it the lowest grade," Hagel said during an event at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Heavens! He sounds just like a U.S. Nobel Laureate! 

"I think of this administration, what they could have done after 9/11, what was within their grasp," he said. "Every poll in the world showed 90 percent of the world for us. Iran had some of the first spontaneous demonstrations on the streets of Tehran supporting America."

"There's where they have failed the country," Hagel continued. "They've squandered the time and the opportunity that they had, and the next president is going to take four years to not only dig out from under that."

Someone's not going to be invited to the Big Annual Christmas Party!

Hagel still insists he has no plans to run for president. 

(The video is a 39-second clip of the 2006 White House Christmas party's Marine Corp band. Poor Chuck. He'll miss all the fun.) 

UPDATE: He would be open to the idea of either working in a Democratic administration or even running as the vice presidential nominee on a Democratic ticket -- though, he conceded, "I probably won't have to worry about it" because he's unlikely to be asked.