Block and tackle

After a period of time where it seemed like there weren’t going to be any Senate confirmations of President Obama’s nominations to fill various offices and positions, things seemed to ease up a bit over the winter. Our new Secretary of State sailed through confirmation with little more than a slight breeze in his face, [...]

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Quid pro quo.

Oh, yeah — this guy is definitely gonna’ be getting some pushback. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa breaks it down, via the WFB: You remember, he flew to St. Paul to make this deal. He basically paid a $180 million bribe by causing these cases to collapse. He failed to protect the [...]

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Intelligence.

Commenters are posting the names of the Republicans who voted yes on Brennan in the Lindsey Graham thread. I didn’t realize opposing him had become a litmus test; Paul’s filibuster yesterday was designed to squeeze the White House for an answer on drones, not to block Brennan. (Paul himself voted yes on cloture today, which [...]

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No effort to downplay terrorism.

Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee finally received yesterday what they had demanded for months — and it may have turned into an anti-climax. The White House allowed access to internal e-mails of the Obama administration regarding the preparation of talking points for Susan Rice after the attack on our Benghazi consulate, which some suspected [...]

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Endorsements.

The cloture vote’s tomorrow. Confirmation seems a fait accompli. Is there no man in all the land who, through his sheer odiousness, can stop this train with an anti-endorsement — a sort of demonus ex machina? Perhaps there is, my friends. Perhaps there is. “Now wait,” Farrakhan told the crowd. “He said this to Aaron [...]

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Okay.

How can he be sure? Hagel always looks like he’s been crying. To believe that a professional politician needed it explained to him that the term “Jewish lobby” is problematic, you’d have to believe he’s an abject imbecile. So … yeah, this is actually plausible: “He struck me as sincere, and you know, you have [...]

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58/40.

He was one vote short. Republicans Cochran, Collins, and Johanns had all already committed to voting yes so the only mystery was whether Reid could find two more GOPers to cross the aisle. He found one: As expected, Murkowski ended up erring on the side of bipartisanship. Orrin Hatch voted present, which may or may [...]

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McCain on board, too?

Can Republicans delay the confirmation of Chuck Hagel — at least long enough to force the White House to provide more information on Barack Obama’s actions on the night of the Benghazi attack, along with more transparency on Hagel’s speeches over the last few years?  Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) says yes, and that eventually the [...]

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Confirmation.

Major news from Major “Shirty Business” Garrett: I am reliably informed Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, will soon announce backing Chuck Hage. WH and Hagel backers believe they have 60 votes. — Major Garrett(@MajorCBS) February 12, 2013 Remember, to date, not a single Senate Democrat has said he/she will oppose Hagel. That’s 55 votes in the [...]

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Rebuttal.

John McCain set the stage for a truly embarrassing spectacle last week for Chuck Hagel, ripping into his former colleague and friend for opposing the surges in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The tense exchange rattled Hagel and left him off-balance for more pertinent questions about Iran and the Department of Defense that Hagel fumbled.  However, that’s [...]

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Confusion.

Before you answer that question, take a look at this video from the Emergency Committee for Israel, which put together one of the most embarrassing episodes ever by a Cabinet nominee during a confirmation hearing: “Is it too much to ask,” ECI wonders, “that Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel knows the Obama administration’s policy [...]

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Smart power.

Hagel’s goal Thursday was to consolidate [his Democratic support] by getting at least one Republican on the committee to come out for him. Democrats hold 14 of 26 seats on Senate Armed Services, and none of them have hinted that they oppose Hagel. It made sense for Hagel to be demure—more sense than it made, [...]

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"Name one person, in your opinion, who's intimidated by the 'Israeli lobby' in the United States Senate."

You’ve already seen a bunch of video of Hagel today. Get ready to see a bunch more. As I’m writing this, I’m hearing on Twitter that Ted Cruz is destroying him over America supposedly being the “world’s bully.” This isn’t a confirmation hearing, it’s target practice. The beauty of this clip isn’t just the spectacle [...]

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“I’m not going to give you a ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I’ll defer that to the judgment of history."

Presidents will nominate Senators to Cabinet positions in part to get an easy ride to confirmation, and soft treatment during confirmation hearings.  If that’s what Barack Obama and Chuck Hagel expected, they got a rude awakening, almost literally, when John McCain took his turn at the hearing this morning.  McCain ripped Hagel for opposing the [...]

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Unserious.

This morning, the Senate Armed Services Committee will take up the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, replacing the retiring Leon Panetta.  Panetta got the job after his surprisingly effective tenure running the CIA, taking his political connections and extensive experience in executive leadership in bureaucracies into one of the largest such bureaucracies [...]

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Fallout.

On Thursday I asked that President Obama no longer consider me for the job of secretary of state. I made this decision because it is the right step for this country I love. I have never shied away from a fight for a cause I believe in. But, as it became clear that my potential [...]

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Plus, maybe the Secretary of State shouldn't be a dupe.

A number of analysts believe that Barack Obama intends to replace retiring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with UN Ambassador Susan Rice, long a favorite of Obama.  Such a move would be inherently more controversial than another oft-mentioned candidate for the job, Senator John Kerry, who would have sailed through to confirmation among his colleagues.  [...]

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