Hagel wins panel nod; 2 foes allege ties to N. Korea, Iran

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

— After a sometimes contentious debate, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted along party lines to approve the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense, moving the fight over President Barack Obama’s Cabinet choice to the full Senate.

Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, won the 26-member panel’s endorsement with only Democratic votes. All 11 Republicans present voted against his nomination, with one absent.

The full Senate could vote as early as Thursday to confirm Hagel, although several GOP senators have threatened to seek delays. Hagel already has scheduled his first foreign trip on Feb. 20.

The two-hour hearing grew heated after Sen. Ted Cruz, RTexas, complained that Hagel did not report the source of $200,000 in income, saying it may have come “directly from North Korea.” He admitted that he had “no evidence” to support that charge.

Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., countered that Hagel had complied with all the committee’s financial disclosure requirements, including those for foreign sources of income. He chided Cruz, the panel’s most junior Republican, for offering “innuendo” without evidence.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., reacted more strongly, calling Cruz’s remarks “out of line.”

Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the senior Republican on the committee, said those who suggested that Hagel was “cozy” with terrorist states had a basis for their claims because Iran has expressed support for his nomination.

“He’s endorsed by them,” Inhofe said. “You can’t get any cozier than that.”

Sen. Claire McCaskill, DMo., attacked both Cruz and Inhofe for their remarks.

“I’ve got to say, be careful, Sen. Inhofe,” she told him. “What if some horrible organization said tomorrow that you were the best guy that they knew?”

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former close friend of Hagel who has been sharply critical of his views on Iraq, praised him Tuesday. Like McCain, Hagel served in combat in the Vietnam War, and was woundedtwice in battle.

“Sen. Hagel is an honorable man. He served his country and no one on this committee should impugn his integrity,” he said.

Other Republican criticism focused on issues that emerged before and during Hagel’s Jan. 31 confirmation hearing, including his past statements on Iran and Israel, and concerns that he will oversee a significant drawdown in Pentagon spending.

Members also cited Hagel’s widely panned performance at his confirmation hearing, when he appeared tentative and unsure at times. McCain called it the worst of any defense nominee he had seen.

Even a supporter, Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said she wished he had appeared “feistier.”

“The next secretary of defense is going to have to deal with a world on fire,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of Hagel’s chief critics. “I just believe that the testimony of Sen. Hagel was not reassuring.”

Levin said Hagel had explained or apologized for some of his more provocative past statements.

“Despite efforts of some to portray him as ‘outside the mainstream’ of American foreign policy, Sen. Hagel has received broad support from a wide array of senior statesmen and defense and foreign policy organizations,” Levin said.

In a breakthrough for Hagel, he gained the endorsement of Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate’s No. 3 Democratic leader, on Jan. 15. Schumer said Hagel had assuaged his concerns about the nominee’s positions on Israel and Iran during a 90-minute meeting at the White House.

Levin warned that the Senate could not take the risk of rejecting the president’s pick for Pentagon chief, particularly after North Korea’s underground nuclear test overnight raised fresh concerns of instability in northeast Asia.

“Such an absence of senior leadership [at the Pentagon] would be unlikely to benefit either our national defense or our men and women in uniform,” Levin said.

Several GOP members on the committee have threatened to delay or derail a final vote in the Senate.

Inhofe has said he would insist that Hagel overcome a filibuster, which would require support of 60 senators, before moving to a final up-or-down vote.

Graham has threatened to hold Hagel’s nomination until the White House answers specific questions about Obama’sactions on Sept. 11, when armed militants stormed a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and killed four Americans.

It appears Hagel has enough votes to win confirmation. The White House believes all 53 Democratic senators and the two independents who caucus with the party will support Hagel’s confirmation. Two other Republicans - Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Mike Johanns of Nebraska - have also said they would vote yes.

Other Republican senators who say they will ultimately vote against Hagel have nonetheless said they oppose a filibuster.

Blocking such a high-level presidential nominee is a rare move. Since 1917, when the Senate’s modern filibuster rules were created, a Cabinet-level nominee has faced a supermajority barrier to confirmation only twice - Ronald Reagan’s nominee for commerce secretary in 1987 and George W. Bush’s nominee for interior secretary in 2006.

Opposition to Hagel, including ads on cable television, have been led by Republicans outside Congress such as William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard magazine.

Kristol and McCain are among Republicans who favor a more aggressive U.S. military stance abroad and broke with Hagel when he opposed the surge in Iraq during George W. Bush’s administration. Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, predicted that Hagel will be a rubber stamp for Obama’s defense policies.

“My guess is, if you look at what the president’s motives are for picking Chuck Hagel, I think he wants a Republican to go be the foil, if you will, for what he wants to do to the Defense Department, which is, I think, do serious, serious damage to our military capabilities,” Cheney said in an interview that aired Tuesday on CBS This Morning. “It looks to me that the president has made choices, in part, based on people who won’t argue with him.”

If confirmed, Hagel will be Obama’s third defense secretary, after Robert Gates andthe outgoing secretary, Leon Panetta.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael A. Memoli of the Tribune Washington Bureau; by Jeremy W. Peters of The New York Times and by Laura Litvan and Roger Runningen of Bloomberg News.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/13/2013