On a party-line vote, former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) moved out of the Senate Armed Services Committee moments ahead and headed to a vote in the full Senate.
The vote was 14-11, with Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) present at the meeting — and arguing against Hagel — but not there for the vote. Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) left the vote open for 10 minutes to give Vitter a chance to come back.
This gives President Obama some of his favored talking points about partisanship at tonight’s State of the Union address, but it doesn’t mean that his nominee is home-free. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has threatened to block both Hagel and CIA director nominee John Brennan over Benghazi. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has said he doesn’t favor a filibuster — a line the White House has liked to repeat — but stressed “I do not believe that we should move forward with his nomination” with outstanding questions about the Libya attack.
“Some members of this committee strongly oppose President Obama’s foreign policy,” Levin said at the opening of the meeting. “Regardless how we may feel about the President’s policies, however, our vote on Senator Hagel’s nomination will not change those policies. If there is a risk here, it is that the defeat of this nomination would leave the Department of Defense leaderless at a time when we face immense budgetary challenges and our military is engaged in combat operations overseas.”
Democrats and Republicans alike, though in different terms, agreed Hagel had a poor performance in his hearing before the Armed Services Committee. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said she wished the nominee had been “feistier.”
Graham said he opposed Hagel because “there are very few people who have been this wrong about so many things.”
The vote on the nomination turned into a tangle between senators when Ted Cruz (R-Texas) questioned whether Hagel had gotten payments from “extreme and radical groups.” Levin told Cruz to come back with evidence.
“This senator feels like that Senator Cruz has gone over the line,” said Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). “He basically has impugned the patriotism of the nominee.”
“I just want to make it clear: Senator Hagel is an honorable man,” McCain said of his fellow Vietnam vet. “He has served his country and no one on this committee at any time should impugn his character or his integrity.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said he opposed Hagel because the former senator “has not shown himself to be the right person for the job.”
“Senator Hagel has complied only with the bare minimum required by the committee regarding certain funding sources for his activities, although there are still many troubling questions. Instead of following precedents set by other top level cabinet nominees, Senator Hagel has chosen to set up roadblocks,” Lee added.
Kim Jong-un showed up in a number of arguments for the nominee.
“Given the enormous national security challenges that await the next Secretary of Defense, including bringing our troops home from Afghanistan and responding to the unconscionable nuclear test by North Korea, the Senate should move quickly to vote on this nomination,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said.
Good thing Ashton Carter is actually managing the DoD.
Maybe Hagel will still withdraw once he realizes his main function will be to ‘manage’ Pakistan and Egypt’s militaries as the #1 military-to-military diplomat, and his #2 job will be to salvage the F-35Jsf and Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship – both very troubled and expensive programs.
Maybe a real bi-partisan pick would have been former Rep. Gene Taylor, MS, (the blue dog dem who voted for McCain) who did a terrific job helping the Coast Guard salvage their troubled program.
The idiot’s job will be professional fall guy for the damage Obama is about to do. And he so richly deserves that honor. Smirk while you still can you worthless twit.
And what if Hagel is blocked and Obama nominates someone else with his same ideology, but who is smarter? Would this be a good thing?
Yes, because Hagel is only a cover. Anything goes wrong, King Saul gets to blame a R for it….
If Hagel is an “honorable man” let him prove it by providing the documentation about the organizations he has served and how they get their money. Harry Reid had no similar concerns when he basically called Romney a dishonorable tax cheat. These people are ethically challenged in my view and they need to be subjected to scrutiny as to their associations. Why do associations matter? Look at what we ended up with as president is just one example or the countless people with ties to the communist party, radicals, the muslim broterhood, and other shady orgnizations. Would it matter if Hillary’s chief of staff who is a muslim has ties to the muslim brotherhood? Apparenty Grahm and McCain could care less. Would it matter if John Brennan were a muslim? If he is, I can assure you that the level of scrutiny should be ratcheted up accordingly. Particularly when this administration cannot use the word “terrorist” even when the Fort Hood Shooter yells “Allah Akbar” whilel killing innocent soldiers. How about calling this a case of “workplace violence.” The fact that this president puts up incompetent people with shady dealings for key posts is a problem of his own making. The American people are getting screwed by these policies and would be up in arms if they ever knew the truth about what is really going on in DC with these appointments and the collection of losers surrounding our president in key policy making positions. To quote Hillary “What difference does it make? Plenty!
Hagel is an Iranian computer virus that is infecting the Defense Dept in revenge for Stuxnet
North Korea Tests Nuclear Device, World Braces For Reaction James Crobett Posted on: February 13, 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hcng7CmYQ&feature=player_embedded#!
Tommy Gun, it may be your president, but “it” sure ain’t mine! Every single nominee of the disease currently infesting the White House is rotten. Status as a pathological liar seems essential if one is to be nominated. Disinformative input by CFR members like Nutcake McCain confuses the slothful and ignorant, ie, the majority of our electorate. The insolent blabberings of the Witches Workshop, ie, Clinton, Sebelius, Pelosi et al,are designed by the CFR as expectorations in our faces, because they know that no matter how absurd their programs and claims for them are, most of us will believe them. Why? Because we are too lazy to check them out and too cowardly and stupid to punish them for their criminal and traitorous behavior.