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In the end, it was the performance of the senators on the panel -- inflexible and sometimes downright dogmatic -- that seemed to prove the cynics right. Searching for any variance on his positions on Israel, any nuance whatsoever, the committee, or at least its Republican members, seemed to be on a crusade to grind down Hagel's edge. In order to ascend to higher office, the senators seemed to say, a non-traditional foreign policy thinker had no choice but to renounce his unconventional thinking.