This afternoon John DiStaso of the New Hampshire Union Leader tweeted that Senator Kelly Ayotte will oppose the nomination of Chuck Hagel for the position of Defense Secretary. An op-ed explaining her decision will be published tomorrow ahead of the committee vote. She’s not the only Senator opposed to Hagel. Oddly, quite a few Democrats aren’t too keen on Obama’s token RINO, but they’ll go along with it because they just do as they’re told.
After the President nominated Mr. Hagel, Chuck Schumer—who calls himself the Senate’s “guardian of Israel”—raised what he called “genuine concerns.” Within days and before the hearing, Mr. Schumer emerged from a meeting with Mr. Hagel to declare himself unconcerned and a yes vote.
After the hearing, Missouri’s Claire McCaskill offered this excuse: “Chuck Hagel is much more comfortable asking questions than answering them. That’s one bad habit you get into when you’ve been in the Senate—you can dish it out but sometimes it’s a little more difficult to take it.” Now, there’s an endorsement for someone taking a job to command generals.
The last-ditch rationalization is that a President deserves the advisers he picks. “Well, this is President Obama’s choice,” said Maryland’s Ben Cardin. “It’s not who I would prefer to see as secretary of defense.” That isn’t what Senators Joe Biden or John Kerry said when they filibustered John Bolton’s nomination to be Ambassador to the U.N. in 2005.
Republicans are so far signaling that they won’t filibuster Mr. Hagel, which speaks well of their confirmation consistency even with a Democrat in the White House. But Senators of either party still owe voters their independent judgment on an up or down vote. Advice and consent isn’t supposed to mean partisan deference to the White House, especially when a nominee looks as unprepared as Mr. Hagel does.
It’s clear that Mr. Obama chose Mr. Hagel not because he wants a strong and knowledgeable adviser but because he wants a cipher who will take orders from the White House.
Read the whole thing. In short, it’s just business as usual in Washington, DC.
Hagel needs at least five Republican votes in the Senate.
He has none, unless you count McCain. Then, he still needs four at minimum.
Any move to subvert either the filibuster or appoint Hagel in recess will trigger an immediate Constitutional crisis, and tank the markets.
Republicans have 100% of the leverage for the next 21 months if they choose to use it.
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If the Rs in the Senate go along with Hagel I give up on them permanently. What a disgrace. The man won’t tell us where he get his money, has repeatedly indicated he prefers the Muslims to Israel, and he can’t even talk defense intelligently.
And the Democrats. Well, they are all owned and operated by George Soros and his puppet Obama, so what else would you expect.
Our government is a total disgrace. Wake up, America, we’re running out of time. Boom Boom Napolitano will be coming after us with her hollow nosed bullets soon.
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I hope McCain doesn’t shoot her before the vote.
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