Is Hagel Showing His Hand?

Mar. 7, 2007 — -- Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel has not announced whether he will run for president in 2008. But his decision to tell two labor groups that he wants to participate in their upcoming presidential "cattle calls" might be showing his hand, according to the firefighter and construction groups which are slated to hear from the Nebraska senator in Washington, D.C. over the next three weeks.

"It was made absolutely clear to him that he was coming to speak at a forum where all the major presidential candidates were invited to speak," said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the International Association of Fire Fighters, regarding Hagel's decision to speak to the firefighters in Washington, D.C. on March 14.

The firefighters are not the only ones to see significance in Hagel's cattle-call speaking schedule.

"I think it's fair to say that if Sen. Hagel is accepting the invitation to be a participant in a presidential candidates' forum that he is, in fact, a candidate for president," said Helen Corbertt, the communications director for the Building and Construction Trades Department, the alliance of craft unions which is slated to hear from Hagel on March 28.

The rumblings about a possible Hagel entrance into the presidential race come five and one-half weeks after Hagel told the Washington Post that he would make a decision in the next six weeks.

Hagel's own political director remains tight-lipped about Hagel's plans, saying that Hagel is still weighing his options, which have long been described as including running for president, running for re-election to the Senate, or leaving elective politics altogether.

"Sen. Hagel has not made a decision about his political future," Hagel political director Kevin Chapman told ABC News. "But will, most likely, talk about his political future, as he has said publicly, in the next few weeks."

Speaking to the firefighters along with Hagel on March 14 will be three other Republicans -- former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. --