Former US Senator Chuck Hagel Faces Resistance to Nomination
By Carl Wicklander | 12/22/2012 | Headline, War and Foreign Policy | 5 Comments
(Credit: BBC)
On Friday, President Barack Obama officially nominated Massachusetts US Senator John Kerry to become the next secretary of state. With UN ambassador Susan Rice rescinding her name from consideration, the Bay State’s senior senator became the favorite to succeed the outgoing Hillary Clinton.
The next big cabinet appointment will likely be for secretary of defense. Although he has not officially been nominated, former US Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, is said to be on the president’s short list to lead the Pentagon.
While Kerry’s name as a possible alternative to Rice was embraced by Republicans, with John McCain jokingly referring to Kerry as “Mr. Secretary,” Hagel’s prospective nomination has been greeted with derision from both sides; most notably from his own party.
Groups like the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group, have recently latched onto a statement Hagel made in 1998 about James Hormel, an open homosexual and nominee for ambassador to Luxembourg. The Senator said:
“[Ambassadors] are representing America. . . . They are representing our lifestyle, our values, our standards. And I think it is an inhibiting factor to be gay – openly, aggressively gay like Mr. Hormel – to do an effective job.”
Hagel has since apologized for these remarks.
Another quote from Hagel’s past that is receiving scrutiny comes from an interview in Aaron David Miller‘s 2008 book, The Much Too Promised Land:
“When someone would accuse him of not being pro-Israel because he didn’t sign [an AIPAC] letter, Hagel told me he responds: ‘I didn’t sign the letter because it was a stupid letter.’ . . . Hagel is a strong supporter of Israel and a believer in shared values. ‘The Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,’ but as he put it, ‘I’m a United States senator. I’m not an Israeli senator.’”
Hagel’s use of the words “Jewish lobby” irked some Democratic Senators. Bob Casey (D-PA) said, “Any comment that undermines our relationship [with Israel] concerns me.” Michigan’s Carl Levin backed away from this particular statement while still generally supporting Hagel.
However, Hagel’s confirmation vulnerability may come from his own party where, as a Senator, he questioned the Cuba trade embargo, opposed the counterinsurgency strategy of 2007-08, and voted against sanctions against Iran.
Republican US Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has already stated he will oppose Hagel while McCain scoffs at the notion that Hagel is even a Republican.
Out of government, Hagel has already served on President Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board and endorsed Democratic senatorial candidates Joe Sestak and Bob Kerrey over Republicans considered conservative.
In an op-ed in Friday’s Wall Street Journal, Congressman-elect Tom Cotton (R-AK) laid out the case against Hagel:
“His record on Iraq alone should disqualify the former senator from leading US troops in time of war. . . .
“In the Senate, he helped in early 2007 to delay emergency funding for the war. He then voted for a measure to force withdrawal from Iraq. . . .
“Unlike the current secretary of defense, Mr. Hagel seems willing to accept devastating cuts to defense spending, calling the US military ‘bloated’ and in need of being ‘pared down.’ He also has expressed a desire to accelerate the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
Referring to Hagel’s objection to the half-century old Cuba trade embargo, which he calls “outdated, unrealistic” and “irrelevant,” Florida US Senator Marco Rubio, a son of Cuban immigrants, said through a spokesman that he is “threatening to place a hold” on Hagel’s confirmation.
The Emergency Committee for Israel, a 501(c)(4) organization co-founded by the Weekly Standard‘s Bill Kristol, is airing a cable TV ad entitled “Not An Option,” because the former Senator voted against sanctions against Iran and said “military action is not a viable, feasible, responsible action.”
If he is confirmed, Hagel would be the second Republican to serve the post during the Obama administration. If he serves until the end of Obama’s term it would also mark six years of Republican leadership at the Pentagon in a Democratic administration.
On first glance, Hagel’s nomination to the defense department would seem uncontroversial. He is a Republican, a veteran, served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and currently serves as the co-chairman of the president’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
At his confirmation hearing, Hagel’s independent streak would come to the front: questioning the GOP’s conventional wisdom on Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Cuba. Although some Democrats have their own qualms about Chuck Hagel, his potential nomination is stirring passions among his own party that may portend a political battle.
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5 Comments
Ed O'Toole
12.24.2012
Chuck Hagel, for gods sake, is in line to be ”Secretary of State” of the United States, not Israel.
We Americians are sick and tired of what the Jewish lobby demands. Chuck is the only one talking
common sense
Ed O'Toole
12.24.2012
Secretary of Defense, not State, sorry.
Jean Pierre Katz
12.25.2012
@jean_pierre_katz
There are many reasons to oppose Chuck Hagel besides Israel, anti-semitism and Iran.
To me he is the stereotypical Archie Bunker type bigot. His policies have been anti gay (even now after his late and self serving apology he doesn’t support equal benefits for gay military families. He is anti-African American (with a 17/100 rating from NAACP and admires Strom Thurmond as a great role model. anti Woman (vs choice and contraception)
and
Hagel has drawn additional heat from insiders who claim he lacks the credentials needed to manage a department as large and essential as the Pentagon.
“Yes, Hagel has crazy positions on several key issues. Yes, Hagel has said things that are borderline anti-Semitism. Yes, Hagel wants to gut the Pentagon’s budget. But above all, he’s not a nice person and he’s bad to his staff,” said a senior Republican Senate aide who has close ties to former Hagel staffers.
“Hagel was known for turning over staff every few weeks—within a year’s time he could have an entirely new office because nobody wanted to work for him,” said the source. “You have to wonder how a man who couldn’t run a Senate office is going to be able to run an entire bureaucracy.”
Others familiar with Hagel’s 12 year tenure in the Senate said he routinely intimidated staff and experienced frequent turnover.
“Chuck Hagel may have been collegial to his Senate colleagues but he was the Cornhusker wears Prada to his staff, some of whom describe their former boss as perhaps the most paranoid and abusive in the Senate, one who would rifle through staffers desks and berate them for imagined disloyalty,” said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq. “He might get away with that when it comes to staffers in their 20s, but that sort of personality is going to go over like a ton of bricks at the Pentagon.”
Multiple sources corroborated this view of Hagel.
“As a manager, he was angry, accusatory, petulant,” said one source familiar with his work on Capitol Hill. “He couldn’t keep his staff.”
“I remember him accusing one of his staffers of being ‘f—ing stupid’ to his face,” recalled the source who added that Hagel typically surrounded himself with those “who basically hate Republicans.”
Sources expressed concern about such behavior should Hagel be nominated for the defense post. With competing military and civilian interests vying for supremacy, the department requires a skilled manager, sources said.
“The Pentagon requires strong civilian control,” a senior aide to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told the Free Beacon. “It’s already swung back in favor of the military over the past five years. A new secretary of defense should push it back in its rightful place, but it’s doubtful Hagel would be that guy.”
“It’s not clear that [Hagel] has the standing, the managerial prowess, or the willingness to gore some oxen,” said the source.
One senior Bush administration official warned that Hagel is ill informed about many critical foreign policy matters.
“He’s not someone who’s shown a lot of expertise on these issues,” said the source, referencing a recent Washington Post editorial excoriating Hagel’s record. “That [op-ed] was extraordinary.”
“Only in Washington,” the official added, “can someone like [Hagel] be seen as a heavy weight. He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.”
Hagel is likely viewed positively by the administration mainly because he is a Republican who often criticizes his own party, the source said.
“He’ll dance to a tune played by the White House,” said the former official. “That I think is the real problem.”
As lawmakers consider a deal to avoid sweeping budgets cuts and tax hikes, Hagel’s support for slashing spending at the Pentagon has irked many defense hawks.
“This is a time when a secretary of defense needs to be raising hell about the sequestration cuts,” said the Rumsfeld aide. “It’s not clear that Hagel has any interest in picking that fight.”
Hagel’s reluctance to chastise Iran also remains a central concern.
As chief of the Pentagon it is expected he would avoid planning for a military intervention should Tehran refuse to end its clandestine nuclear enrichment program.
“The military brass is already reluctant to offer up any military options on Iran even though it’s their job to have something on the books and to leave the options of the commander in chief open,” said the Rumsfeld aide. “Hagel will only reinforce these worrisome tendencies.”
“Chances are he’ll view any legitimate effort to talk about military options with Iran as some plot by the ‘Israel Lobby’ to box him in,” the source said.
Naomi Took
12.26.2012
Disgusting display by the GOP.
Jean
12.26.2012
There are many reasons to oppose Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense besides Israel, Anti-Semitism and Iran.
Thomas Friedman and many others that are now supporting Hagel are using magical fairy tale thinking not logic and facts. They believe Hagel will slay the ogre Netanyahu and then everyone will live happily ever after.
if you believe that
you can argue that singling out only Jews for exerting too much influence is not anti-semetc. You could argue that the US should accept an Iranian nuclear weapons program or even an Iranian ICBM program. You could argue that Israel should withdraw to the 1967 armistice lines from which it was attacked in return for nothing and still be pro-Israel.
But to me he is the stereotypical Archie Bunker type bigot. His policies have been anti gay (even now after his late and self serving apology he doesn’t support equal benefits for gay military families. He is anti-African American (with a 17/100 rating from NAACP and admires Strom Thurmond as a great role model. anti Woman (vs choice and contraception)
and
Hagel has drawn additional heat from insiders who claim he lacks the credentials needed to manage a department as large and essential as the Pentagon.
“Yes, Hagel has crazy positions on several key issues. Yes, Hagel has said things that are borderline anti-Semitism. Yes, Hagel wants to gut the Pentagon’s budget. But above all, he’s not a nice person and he’s bad to his staff,” said a senior Republican Senate aide who has close ties to former Hagel staffers.
“Hagel was known for turning over staff every few weeks—within a year’s time he could have an entirely new office because nobody wanted to work for him,” said the source. “You have to wonder how a man who couldn’t run a Senate office is going to be able to run an entire bureaucracy.”
Others familiar with Hagel’s 12 year tenure in the Senate said he routinely intimidated staff and experienced frequent turnover.
“Chuck Hagel may have been collegial to his Senate colleagues but he was the Cornhusker wears Prada to his staff, some of whom describe their former boss as perhaps the most paranoid and abusive in the Senate, one who would rifle through staffers desks and berate them for imagined disloyalty,” said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq. “He might get away with that when it comes to staffers in their 20s, but that sort of personality is going to go over like a ton of bricks at the Pentagon.”
Multiple sources corroborated this view of Hagel.
“As a manager, he was angry, accusatory, petulant,” said one source familiar with his work on Capitol Hill. “He couldn’t keep his staff.”
“I remember him accusing one of his staffers of being ‘f—ing stupid’ to his face,” recalled the source who added that Hagel typically surrounded himself with those “who basically hate Republicans.”
Sources expressed concern about such behavior should Hagel be nominated for the defense post. With competing military and civilian interests vying for supremacy, the department requires a skilled manager, sources said.
“The Pentagon requires strong civilian control,” a senior aide to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told the Free Beacon. “It’s already swung back in favor of the military over the past five years. A new secretary of defense should push it back in its rightful place, but it’s doubtful Hagel would be that guy.”
“It’s not clear that [Hagel] has the standing, the managerial prowess, or the willingness to gore some oxen,” said the source.
One senior Bush administration official warned that Hagel is ill informed about many critical foreign policy matters.
“He’s not someone who’s shown a lot of expertise on these issues,” said the source, referencing a recent Washington Post editorial excoriating Hagel’s record. “That [op-ed] was extraordinary.”
“Only in Washington,” the official added, “can someone like [Hagel] be seen as a heavy weight. He’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.”
Hagel is likely viewed positively by the administration mainly because he is a Republican who often criticizes his own party, the source said.
“He’ll dance to a tune played by the White House,” said the former official. “That I think is the real problem.”
As lawmakers consider a deal to avoid sweeping budgets cuts and tax hikes, Hagel’s support for slashing spending at the Pentagon has irked many defense hawks.
“This is a time when a secretary of defense needs to be raising hell about the sequestration cuts,” said the Rumsfeld aide. “It’s not clear that Hagel has any interest in picking that fight.”
Hagel’s reluctance to chastise Iran also remains a central concern.
As chief of the Pentagon it is expected he would avoid planning for a military intervention should Tehran refuse to end its clandestine nuclear enrichment program.
“The military brass is already reluctant to offer up any military options on Iran even though it’s their job to have something on the books and to leave the options of the commander in chief open,” said the Rumsfeld aide. “Hagel will only reinforce these worrisome tendencies.”
“Chances are he’ll view any legitimate effort to talk about military options with Iran as some plot by the ‘Israel Lobby’ to box him in,” the source said.