Charlie,

I don't know. Hagel doesn't seem to really excite many people, but he might pick up some cachet due to his early skepticism about the war on Iraq. The names I've seen mentioned most often by self-described "libertarian Republicans" are Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. Of course, I don't find them exciting (or especially libertarian) myself, but that's what I keep seeing.

Interestingly, the Republican Liberty Caucus has highly rated John McCain in the past, even grading him, on their uniform scale, as a "Libertarian" now and again and once, if memory serves, as the "Most Libertarian" US Senator. I don't see it, but who knows?

Personally, I think that the GOP will continue to slide in 2008, losing the White House and more seats in Congress. The real question is whether they can hold the line and start coming back after that -- and if so, whether or not they'll decide to do so by appealing to libertarian sentiments rather than to one of their other constituencies (the religious right/social conservatives, the "big government conservatives" of a law and order stripe, etc.).

Regards,
Tom Knapp