The Republican opposed the Iraq surge and favored regional negotiations with Iran and Syria. The GOP luminary has cautioned against pre-emptive strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities. He publicly criticized Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. He advised the presidential campaigns of both John McCain and Mitt Romney on national security policy, and in 2000 helped secure Florida for George W. Bush. Oh, and he declared “f**k the Jews” and complained they “didn’t vote for us anyway.” Of course, that GOP leader wasn’t Vietnam War hero, former Nebraska Senator and Obama Pentagon nominee Chuck Hagel, but Republican heavyweight James A. Baker III. And as it turns out, while Lindsey Graham called Baker a “role model,” John McCain lauded the former Bush Secretary of State as “smartest guy I know” and wanted him to lead the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.