Posted on 02/12/2013 7:15:16 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The Senate Armed Services Committee will vote Tuesday on Chuck Hagel’s nomination for secretary of defense, committee chairman Carl Levin (D., Mich.) announced today.
Reports suggest Levin has grown tired of requests for details about the various groups Hagel spoken for and received compensation from, as well as GOP threats to filibuster the nomination until more information is disclosed about the September 11 attacks in Benghazi and the administration’s response. One Republican aide said Levin’s decision to rush through a committee vote was an effort to “snuff the momentum” building in opposition to the Hagel’s nomination.
Levin had originally scheduled a committee vote for last Thursday, but he abruptly cancelled it amid speculation of increasing Democratic hesitancy about Hagel’s nomination, as well as mounting criticism from Republicans over Hagel’s refusal to comply with transparency requests.
If and when the committee approves Hagel’s nomination, the full Senate could vote as early as Thursday. The question then becomes whether or not Republicans will, by filibustering, require a 60-vote threshold for confirmation. Senators Jim Inhofe (R., Okla.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) have openly threatened to do so, and several others have hinted at the possibility.
Democrats would need at least five Republican votes to end a filibuster, a goal that has started to appear increasingly difficult to achieve. “Last week, I was pretty confident that, despite [Hagel’s] horrible showing at the confirmation hearing, he would still probably get to 60 votes,” a GOP Senate aide told National Review Online. “But I think his hiding the ball on [disclosing past associations] is going to hurt his ability get those five Republican votes.”
Hagel supporters have charged that filibustering a cabinet nominee would be unprecedented, but that simply is not true. In 2006, for example, Democrats filibustered the nomination of Dirk Kempthorne, President George W. Bush’s choice for secretary of the interior.
There is nothing Republicans can do to prevent Hagel’s nomination from passing out of the committee, which Democrats control. However, Senate sources confirm that several GOP members of the committee are mulling a walkout of Tuesday’s vote in protest, although Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) has argued against the idea, calling it “disrespectful to Chairman Levin and at odds with the best traditions of the Senate Armed Services Committee.”
McCain said in a statement Monday that while he shared many of his colleagues’ concerns about Hagel’s nomination, Levin’s decision to hold the vote was “appropriate.”
Why are the republicans being such party poopers? I’m sure Hagel can fog a mirror as well as the next guy...
So freaking what!!!
Keep the POS out.
They want to use him as a prop to show bipartisanship (retching) and be able to say that the GOP was part of any disaster that might ensue from gutting the military.
FUBO & FAD
89-10.
Only two GOPers are on record in support of Hagel (Johannes and Cochran). Fischer is undecided.
Good old McCain always reaching out to “his friends on the other side of the aisle”
I thought Senate rules could not be changed once in session.
When the dems blocked Dirk Kempthorne, they set the precedent. A precedent can only be set once. This one is property of dems.
I’m for our side to do whatever is necessary to block Hagel and the undercover mooselimb up for CIA. Both are being pushed by nobama to hurt America.
Hagel had best not have ANY GOP votes. NONE!!
McCain needs to be sent to a retirement home. Yesterday.
And, in a nutshell, you have what is wrong with John McCain. Who gives a DAMN what is disrespectful to Carl Levin?
Yeah, but only 8 of them voted against the cloture motion. My guess is that the Pubbies will fold like a cheap suit like they always do.
He will get at least two, Cochran and Johannes, maybe Fischer.
Yep.
Bet my tally is closer than yours.
Brennan
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