After months of political debate the Senate Armed Services Committee may bring the Chuck Hagel saga closer to a resolution today. Yesterday, committee chair Carl Levin said he would schedule a vote for this afternoon but the ranking Republican member seems prepared to fight the former senator’s nomination as secretary of defense to the bitter end. With Democrats closing ranks behind the president’s choice to head the Pentagon, there doesn’t seem much chance that Hagel can be stopped in the committee. And with some Republicans, including John McCain, vowing not to support a filibuster of the nomination, it seems all but certain that Hagel will be confirmed perhaps as early as this week.
McCain made no secret of his antipathy for his former friend during a stormy confirmation hearing in which Hagel stumbled badly giving the impression that he was both unprepared and unqualified for the position. But McCain’s opposition to a GOP walkout from a committee vote as well as the filibuster may prevent opponents from using procedural tactics to stop the nomination going forward. The Arizonan feels that allowing the argument about Hagel to blow up relationships between the two parties in the committee or an attempt to stop the confirmation via filibuster —something that has rarely happened to any Cabinet nominee — would be unjustified. His concern for keeping things civil in the Senate deserves respect but given the stakes involved in this nomination, those Republicans who will seek to use every trick in the book to stop Hagel are justified.
Senator McCain is right to note that any attempt to raise the bar to Cabinet nominations to the 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster rather than a simple majority may someday boomerang on the Republicans. Though Democrats are currently speaking as if their hold on the White House and the Senate is permanent that is nonsense and a GOP president and Senate majority will likely fume over a future Democratic attempt to thwart a nomination they wish to push through via a filibuster. But the escalation of filibuster tactics that the Democrats pioneered a decade ago against George W. Bush’s judicial nominees is a genie that can’t be put back in the bottle except by a rules change that neither party really wants.
It should also be pointed out that the bygone era of bipartisan civility in Congress that McCain understandably yearns to bring back is only possible when both parties put forward plausible nominees. The impulse to defer to the president’s choices for senior posts makes sense so long as the people they are being asked to rubber stamp are not outliers on policy or as transparently incompetent as Hagel.
Levin and other Democrats have taken umbrage at attempts by Jim Inhofe, the committee’s ranking member and other Republicans to make Hagel jump through hoops that other cabinet nominees may not have been asked to do. But the spectacle of a would-be secretary of defense speaking of his post as not being one that sets policy or being unable to define or articulate the administration’s stand on containing a nuclear Iran undermines any notion that good manners requires Republicans to pull their punches on Hagel.
The problem with Hagel is not just that his past opposition to getting tough on Iran as well as his boasts about standing up to the “Jewish lobby” should have made his nomination unthinkable. It is that by putting him in charge of the Pentagon, President Obama is sending an unfortunate signal to Iran that his threats about using force are merely bluffs intended for domestic consumption.
It is possible that Hagel’s presence at the Pentagon does not mean that the president will back down on Iran and that he was picked solely because the White House saw him as someone who could best implement drastic cuts in defense spending. Given Hagel’s bumbling in front of the committee it’s hard to imagine how he will manage such a vast department let alone pull off an efficient downsizing of the armed forces. But whether the president intended it or not, the world has interpreted Hagel’s elevation in the context of the looming conflict with Iran. In doing so, Obama has encouraged Iranian intransigence and heightened the chances for conflict.
In such a context, any Republican effort to derail his confirmation that falls within the boundary of existing rules must be seen as both justified and necessary. It may be that the willingness of pro-Israel Democrats such as Chuck Schumer to accept the nomination of one of the Jewish state’s antagonists means that nothing will prevent Hagel from taking office. But McCain’s qualms notwithstanding, Inhofe and the GOP caucus are right to pull out the stops to stop him.
"It should also be pointed out that the bygone era of bipartisan civility … is only possible when both parties put forward plausible nominees." n nOh sure. Like Peter Diamond, the Nobel laureate in economics, blocked from the fed. Or blocking nominees for the Consumer Protection Agency because the GOP wants to kill it. And the NLRB? The courts? As usual, Tobin is spouting nonsense.
That's right. Hagel is not a plausible nominee. His rank incompetence and dishonesty were on display for all to see. Of course, for the HilleA's of this world, as long as the nominee tows the bizarre,Islamophillic, leftist worldview of this vile administration, he can have the IQ of a grapefruit-which apparently is the case. No need to fret Hillel-dishonesty and incompetence are virtues well rewarded in Washington these days. He'll be confirmed.
More scary than Hagel as Defense head is the SOB who put his name on the table. Most disappointing are the phony Jews such as Levin and Schumer who support Hagel. It has almost gotten to the point where it is a contradiction in terms to label anyone a "pro-Israel Democrat".
It sure is scary. Worse is the Brenan nomination. He's practically a Jihadi himself. What is going on?!
you're practically jerking yourself into a froth with a claim that Hagel is "practically a Jihadi". n nget a grip….on something other than yourself
Want some proof? Former FBI Islam expert , John Guandolo, has claimed Brennan converted to Islam during his CIA service in Saudi Arabia. More disturbing yet, is that his conversion was the culmination of a counterintelligence operation against him to recruit him. A former marine and combat veteran, Guandolo worked for eight years in the FBI's counterterrorism division as a "subject matter expert" on the Muslim Brotherhood and the global spread of Islamism. Check out Guandolos credentials if you wish. But, of course, you really don't wish because the leftist-Islamofascist alliance are impervious to facts and truth. Now Dumbinsky, go back to watching the grass grow-there's nothing to see here. "AL Quds", Yah right!
Jeffy, you're obviously a crazy sonovabirch and without hope. n nJohn Guandolo making a claim ain't any proof. n nGuandolo's credentials ain't zackly without blemish, but far more important is that his claim wasn't backed by any substance and Johnny's record of veracity and reliability and integrity is woefully poor. n nbeyond that, it's entirely stupid to equate being a Muslim with being "practically a jihadi". n
If you follow the dogma of Islam, you must by necessity be a Jihadist. Again, I ask you why you post here instead of Al Jazeera? It's a reasonable question.
there's nothing reasonable about your silly self n nand your lack of sense and logic overlooks the rather obvious reply that there's not any reason why I couldn't, shouldn't or don't post on both.
Brennan not Hagel
thanks charleston., for the correction.
Tobin has become an utter ass and an hysterical twit who deserves but limited civility in response to to his cretinous crusading.
Interesting use of the word "crusade"! In the context of this discussion, it is most often used by Islamo-fascists to describe Christians. The "Jews and crusaders"….. Speaks volumes about what you are all about. Better head over to Al Jazeera- you'll receive a better reception there.
jeffy, of course i used crusading deliberately to give everyone a clue to the evidence that Tobin is secretly a Christian and an agent of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition working tirelessly to destroy all the Hebrew people. n n nPamela Geller, Frank Gaffney and Robert Spencer have all found vast troves of evidence about this and are about to go public with it after quietly using it to shake up the Vatican and cause the resignation of the Pope. n nstay tuned…it's gonna be a bombshell.
And here I thought a glut of tin foil hats was building on the warehouse shelves. It is one thing to have a strongly held different opinion. Quite another to be living in a different dimension.
Robert Spencer knows more about Islam than you could in a hundred lifetimes. As for Pamela Geller, she's has more guts than you have cajones. Someone who truly speaks truth to power. You're an Islamo-fascist- which means your basically a criminal.
actually, you're about as sane as a shiphouse louse and unfit to judge anything beyond the behavior of nits.
The 2nd term cabinet nominees ALL needs to be filibustered, so I guess the Senate needs a civics lesson about the "advise" part of "advise and consent". n nAs troubling as Hagel and Brennan are, I am far more concerned about Jack Lew at Treasury, and Jewell at Interior.
With Obama, peace be upon him, worse is always what's next.
Why more concerned about Lew and Jewell?
Lew is unqualified to be SecTreas, and that job really does need to instill confidence. I also have a problem with the Obama/Hagel/Brennan/Kerry team possibly still pandering to islamists while an observant Jew fills the global stereotype the islamists love to hate. nBut, mostly, unqualified. At least Geithner was fluent in Mandarin, and had the institutional knowledge of the meltdown, even if he did play a bad role in the meltdown by being too obeisant to Lehman Bros instead of raising the alarm in time. n nMs. Jewell at Interior is a strong signal that fracking for any hydrocarbons on Federal lands will be blocked. And, fracking is the only way I see any hope of any kind of serious job creation. n n We should all realize that the Senate Dems are not happy carrying Hagel to confirmation, thus obliterating any pretense of 'bi-partisanship' in having a Republican as SecDef.
"Lew is unqualified to be SecTreas" nYou mean he actually paid his taxes?
not half bad.