Hagel Approved for Defense in Sharply Split Senate Vote

NYTimes ^ | 2/26/2013 | JEREMY W. PETERS

[South40]

WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as defense secretary on Tuesday after he survived a bruising struggle with Republicans, while President Obama’s nominee to be Treasury secretary moved closer to approval with bipartisan support. The votes suggested that the Republican blockade against the administration’s second-term nominees was beginning to ease.

[jmacusa]

So Chuck “Foster Brooks’’ Hagel is the new Sec. Def. Good lord.

[SoFloFreeper]

We aren’t going to agree with every Senator on every issue, dammit.

Rand Paul is being dismissed on this board because of a single frickin’ vote.

Folks who do that are absurd. They’re content to forever pissed off, apparently.

Good luck getting a governing majority with that attitude.

[Eleutheria5]

Reasoning of four Republicans?

1. Obama was going to be mean to us if we didn’t act bipartisan
2. Obama promised us goodies if we acted bipartisan
3. Hagel has a Constitutional right to be stupid. Kerry said so.
4. We are RINOs. It’s what we do.
5. We have to prove we aren’t in the pocket of the Israeli Lobby.
6. The Oil Lobby said so.
7. The NY Times said so.
8. Hagel performed like a stumblebum. That proves he’s sincere.
9. We are almost as humble as the President, and only half as brave.
10. All of the above.

[blueyon]

McCain voted NO just so you know

[demshateGod]

Sarah Palin will try to tell you that.

[BitWielder1]

What's the point of us voting if the result is the same no matter who gets the seat? Sigh.

[FR_addict]

“Rand Paul is being dismissed on this board because of a single frickin’ vote.”

It’s not just any vote, it’s the top Defense job for this country.

I was vacillating with Rand Paul, wondering if he would be too much like his father. He’s scratched off my list as a viable candidate.

[Colonel_Flagg]

I don’t live anywhere near Kentucky, but I contributed to his campaign because I believed he really supported Tea Party principles.

Rand Paul is a losertarian just like his father.

[CCGuy]

Rand Paul is now dead to me. There is no way anyone can justify allowing that POS Hagel to rule over our military.

He had the absolute worst and most ill-prepared confirmation hearing in our nation’s history and Rand Paul still confirmed him.

Rand Paul has easily and fully shown himself to be a political hack and an enemy of our nation’s military.

I don’t care what he says. I judge him based on his votes.

[billhilly]

It is amusing to see the old time wisdom being applied here. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

[billhilly]

Foster Brooks had much nicer friends.

[Free Vulcan]

Most of them are DU hacks, or Paulnuts or third party wannabe banana dictators.

[devolve]

No limitation on terms creates eternal bribes and the mountain paradise of self-proclaimed Gods and Goddesses

Congress and those like Obama are immune to the endless daily crapola that you must be “subject” to

Insider access to insider ivestments and a career that is almost impossible to be booted out of in elections or by illegal activities or by drowning your women

At least in the 6-year term Senate where all quickly become Philosopher-Queens and vote themselves unlimited Royal Perks

Live your own life as best you can and do not bow down to false idols

Many learned early to forget becoming an attorney as a path to a career in politics

Too many plunged ahead and took the unwritten bribe

[RipSawyer]

Faith65, “Our country will never be the same...ever”

ScottinVA, “I see no reason not to agree.”
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I tried for decades to believe there was still hope for this country but it was only an effort to fool myself. I tried to warn people when I was in my twenties what was coming but all I got in return was a heaping helping of disdain. Being proven wrong when you wanted to be wrong is not as nice as being proven right when you wanted to be right but it is infinitely preferable to being proven right when you wanted to be wrong.

[Alex Murphy]

“..................[Rand Paul] spokeswoman Moira Bagley told Yahoo News. “As he has said before, the president should be entitled to some leeway on his political appointments. That is why Sen. Paul voted in favor of Sen. John Kerry, with whom he largely disagrees on foreign policy, to serve as secretary of state.........”

Ping for later

[SkyPilot]

This is worse than most of you all at Free Republic even realize.

- Hagel was nominated by Obama for two main reasons:

1. Obama can hide behind a "Republican" while the Defense budget is eviscerated even further than the $487 Billion cut that began in 2011 and the now imminent $650 Billion in Sequestration

2. Hagel shares Obama's hatred for the Jewish people and Israel

Even worse, Republicans are now seriously considering giving Obama "special power" to execute Federal funding because the Republicans refuse to deal with the Sequestration mess that they agreed to.

Only a few Republicans realize the danger of giving Obama "extra, temporary power." This all reminds me of Germany during the 1930's.

The Republicans just handed Obama the knife the cut the Defense Department's throat, and now they are sharpening the knife even further.

Weep for American. We are in rapid, rapid decline.

I have never been so frightened for my country.

[Syncro]

"As he has said before, the president should be entitled to some leeway on his political appointments. That is why Sen. Paul voted in favor of Sen. John Kerry, with whom he largely disagrees on foreign policy, to serve as secretary of state........."

Kerry is a known traitor to the USA, shame on Rand Paul

And now Hagel?

Do any Republican politicians have backbone enough to STAND UP FOR AMERICA with their votes?

Just who are they pandering to and what do they expect to get out of voting for those who are in the process of destroying our country???

[NKP_Vet]

The Jew-hater Farrakhan is a happy camper this morning.

http://onyxbook.com/2013/02/louis-farrakhan-gives-chuck-hagel-the-endorsement-he-never-asked-for-or-wanted/

[Fiji Hill]

Paul’s vote floored me. It appears there is really no one left to trust.

The most demoralizing about living in America today is not that we have radical leftists like Obama in power but that his opposition is so supine. Where are our Reagans, Goldwaters and Tafts?

[hal ogen]

It is really cold this morning where I live. Maybe the cold is making the testicles of the Repubs shrink back into their bodies (if they have any testicles, that is).