I’ll throw this one out there for others to ponder.

John McCain grilled his former U.S. Senate colleague Chuck Hagel hard recently on statements Hagel made about U.S. defense policy. Hagel wants to be the next defense secretary and apparently will be recommended for approval next week by the Senate Armed Services Committee on a party-line vote, with the full Senate likely to follow suit.

Sen. McCain’s intense questioning of Hagel got me thinking about these two men. I long have thought they are friends. They’re both Vietnam War veterans. They’re both Republicans. Hagel served as McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign co-chairman. But now he has been tapped to run the Pentagon for President Obama, who beat McCain like a drum in the 2008 election.

Are they still friends? Are are they now enemies?

I know that Capitol Hill politicians say some angry things to each other in public then retire to the back room, pour themselves a drink and laugh it off. President Ronald Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill did that in the 1980s. Former U.S. Rep. Larry Combest used to tell me about how Texas Republican John Tower (for whom Combest once worked) and Minnesota Democrat Hubert Humphrey would debate ferociously on the Senate floor then walk out of the chamber arm-in-arm.

So, did McCain give Hagel a heads up prior to stoking the Senate hearing coals the other day? I kind of think such a conversation could have gone something like this:

“Hey Chuck, this is John. Your appearance tomorrow is going to get tough. I’ll get rough with you. But you surely know why. I’ve got these tea party Republicans back home who’ll get steamed if I don’t stand up for them and question why you said those negative things about the troop surge in Afghanistan. I hope you understand.

“Sure thing, John. I get it. I know how the game is played here. I’ll take my lumps. I’ll even act contrite to you and your committee colleagues if that’s what it takes. Hey man, no hard feelings.”

Many observers think McCain is truly angry with Hagel over accepting the nomination by Obama. A few of my friends think McCain has just gotten to be a bitter old man who takes certain perceived slights a tad too personally.

But I also know that good politicians, like good lawyers, say things for show.

Any thoughts on this? I’m all ears.