Please Make Your Donation Today!!
You Can Help Drastically Shorten FReepathons by Donating Monthly!
VERY Generous FReeper Sponsors are donating $10 for every New Monthly Donor!
Please Sign Up to Donate Monthly!
Posted on 11/24/2014 7:02:03 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
President Obama will announce the resignation of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday in the first high-profile personnel move since Democrats suffered significant losses in this month's midterm elections.
"In October, Secretary Hagel began speaking with the President about departing the administration given the natural post-midterms transition time," a senior administration official said.
Obama will make the announcement with Hagel at 11:00 a.m. According to the White House, a successor will be named "in short order," but Hagel will remain in the post until that person is confirmed by the Senate.
A senior administration official praised Hagel as "a steady hand, guiding our military through this transition, and helping us respond to challenges from [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria] to Ebola."
But The New York Times, which first reported Hagel's departure, suggested the Defense secretary was being forced out over concerns over his ability to lead the campaign against ISIS.
An administration official told the Times that “the next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus" than he was able to provide. Hagel was originally expected to focus primarily on the winddown of the Afghanistan war and the reduction of the Pentagon budget under sequestration.
There have also been reports of high-profile clashes between Hagel and top White House officials, especially on ISIS policy.
Last month, CNN reported that Hagel wrote a memo to National Security Adviser Susan Rice sharply critical of the White House’s strategy toward Syria.
The unnamed source also indicated that Hagel was concerned that the U.S. could lose gains it made in the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) if it did not alter its strategy toward Assad.
And a story last month in the Times suggested that Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel were struggling to win favor with the White House. The story suggested that Hagel was often silent in national security meetings, and that the president preferred to solicit advice from Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said at the time the president was "proud of his national security team."
“The president and his senior team at the White House are proud of the work that the president’s Cabinet are performing to represent our interests around the globe,” Earnest sad.
And Hagel himself also brushed aside suggestion of tensions.
“Because we are a significant element of this issue, we owe the president and we owe the National Security Council our best thinking on this,” Hagel said. “And it has to be honest and it has to be direct.”
Top candidates to replace Hagel could include former Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
The republicans said last week they would hold up confirmation of any appointment. So now the pubes are going to hold up Sec.Def. conformation? Whose is going to be the bad guy. Obama just slipped in over 3,000 new regulations on a Friday dump. NO one is talking about it. We just found 30,000 Lois Lerner e-mail.....a little talk about that.
Deceit, distraction, dissembling.
Is Obama’s non amnesty limited to Hispanics?
most will come across the southern border. Most of those will be hispanics, but i suppose somalis, middle easterns extracts, arabs ....perhaps, ....but most will be hispanics. The photographs and the lobbying efforts have come from dealing with hispanics. I do not mean to disparage hispanics. I mean to disparage obama who will not uphold the law.
Very simple.
I was thinking of the many Asians that are brought here somehow. Maybe they are here illegally. I don’t know.
Undocumented Mexicans are the majority of the people Obama is choosing to allow to remain here without fear of deportation. But I have a suspicion there are a lot of ethnicities of persons who should not be here but are.
Al Sharpton.
As a Republican he might still have a smidgen of self-respect.
Office of Secretary of Defense will now be known as Grand Mufti of Denial.
Very good.
: )
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.