Chuck Hagel; the first Secretary of Defense to have served as an Enlisted Man

[Gatorrick22]

Originally Posted by Row6

if you're a neo-con.

I thought we purged all the name-calling?

[MichiGator2002]

Originally Posted by AmericaFirst

Meh, you don't like Hagel simply because he wants to tell Israel to shove it.

Yeah, that adds to his fruitloops status, too. It is like watching someone cheer against the humans in a zombie flick, but without the knowing irony.

[Gatorrick22]

Originally Posted by MichiGator2002

Yeah, that adds to his fruitloops status, too. It is like watching someone cheer against the humans in a zombie flick, but without the knowing irony.

Now that's freaking funny.

[Row6]

Originally Posted by MichiGator2002

Oh ay? I must have been caught in the blinding smokescreen of his words and actions. The man is as big a fruitloop as Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Jennings, et al. If he can't have an America that merely buses the table of nations, he can make sure that we are always last to get served and never taking seconds.

Nice free association. Have any thing of substance to say?

[AmericaFirst]

Originally Posted by MichiGator2002

Yeah, that adds to his fruitloops status, too. It is like watching someone cheer against the humans in a zombie flick, but without the knowing irony.

FYI - Israel isn't a state nor do we even have a treaty with them.





If you support Israel given their massive UN Violations, you're the ultimate hypocrite and shouldn't complain about the US being hated over there.




People like yourself that look the other way while Israel thumbs their nose at the UN and then complain about Iran or other Middle Eastern countries are just too funny.

[AmericaFirst]

Originally Posted by Row6

Nice free association. Have any thing of substance to say?

It's all about Israel First. They're the beacon of all that is good in the world even though they've committed more UN violations than any country in history.



If Hagel wanted to kiss their butt like others in the past, I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with him.

[DaveFla]

Interesting how even this seemingly benign thread devolves to a hate-filled racial bigotry fest.

Just like the Pope thread....

[rivergator]

Earlier reports that Republicans were planning on walking out on tomorrow’s confirmation vote on Chuck Hagel to become Secretary of Defense have proven to be a bust, according to information relayed to ThinkProgress.
On Sunday, Politico sourced “GOP aides” in reporting that some Republican members of the Senate Armed Services committee were “considering the possibility of walking out” during the procedure, rather than casting a vote. This morning, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) set the confirmation vote for Hagel at 2:30 PM Tuesday. Soon thereafter, The Hill reported that neither Ranking Member Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) nor Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) had plans to join any walk-out.

link

[harwil]

Hagel is completely uninformed on militarty hardware,weapon systems, etc. That's where defense secretatries get the biggest pressures and need technical expertise .He showed he was uninformed in that area and unaware of that US policy with Iran was NOT containment.
The Left's favorite Republican

[dudehead]

Originally Posted by harwil

Hagel is completely uniformed on militarty hardware,weapon systems, etc. That's where defense secretatries get the biggest pressures and need technical expertise .He showed he was uniformed in that area and unaware of that US policy with Iran was NOT containment.
The Left's favorite Republican

If we had more guys like Hagel running the show, we wouldn't have lost 1000s of lives in Iraq nor spent trillions doing so. Hagel would provide wisdom and a buffer against the military industrial complex's need to fire bullets and bombs to improve their quarterly 10-Q.

Eisenhower was right.

[fredsanford]

Originally Posted by MichiGator2002

Oh ay? I must have been caught in the blinding smokescreen of his words and actions. The man is as big a fruitloop as Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Jennings, et al. If he can't have an America that merely buses the table of nations, he can make sure that we are always last to get served and never taking seconds.

It's a shame the GOP allowed this dangerous character to caucus with them for many years.

[rivergator]

Republicans are filibustering to prevent a vote. First time ever for a defense secretary nominee, I think.

[AmericaFirst]

Originally Posted by rivergator

Republicans are filibustering to prevent a vote. First time ever for a defense secretary nominee, I think.

AIPAC gave them their marching orders. The GOP wants an outright war and chaos in the Middle East.



All War.All The Time.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Originally Posted by rivergator

Republicans are filibustering to prevent a vote. First time ever for a defense secretary nominee, I think.

John Tower weeps and rolls over in his grave. I don't know if he was subject to a filibuster, but his nomination was defeated.

John Tower's Nomination for Secretary of Defense – 1989

Feeding Frenzy U.S. Senate confirmation of a president's Cabinet nomination of a former U.S. senator is usually pro forma. But the treatment of George Bush's pick for secretary of defense, ex-Texas senator John Tower, was anything but standard.

After five grueling weeks of testimony, debate, and rumor-mongering, Tower's nomination was defeated in March 1989 by a mostly party-line vote. Accusations of extensive womanizing and heavy drinking filled the airwaves and newspapers, supplementing more traditional charges of conflict-of-interest in Tower's previous work for defense contractors.

Many media organizations unquestionably let their standards slip, with unproven allegations receiving equal weight with legitimate commentary. By the time of the final Senate vote, Tower felt compelled to make a humiliating public pledge on national television to abstain from drinking if confirmed, on pain of resignation if he broke his promise.

There were two other cabinet positions blocked by filibuster. Both against Republicans Presidents.

Blocking such a high-level presidential appointee 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, C. William Verity Jr., and George W. Bush’s nominee for interior secretary in 2006, Dirk Kempthorne.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Not so rare

Cloture was attempted successfully to end filibusters of the nominations of: Dirk Kempthorne for secretary of the Interior in 2006; Robert J. Portman for U.S. Trade Representative in 2005; Stephen L. Johnson for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2005; Michael O. Leavitt for EPA Administrator in 2003; and C. William Verity for secretary of Commerce in 1987. Every one of these nominees were chosen by Republican administrations and primary support for each filibuster came from Democrats in the Senate including, in some cases, current President Obama, Vice President Biden, and Secretary of State Kerry and former Secretary of State Clinton.

Further, a cloture attempt was withdrawn to end a filibuster of Hilda Solis, outgoing Secretary of Labor in the Obama Administration. And by unanimous consent, the Senate agreed to a 60-vote threshold (the same as required to overcome a filibuster) for confirmation of two other Obama Administration cabinet nominees – Kathleen Sebelius for secretary of Health and Human Services and John Bryson for secretary of Commerce.

So, coming back to the question of whether to filibuster the Hagel nomination, we see that not only are filibusters of cabinet-level nominees not unprecedented, there are several such precedents. An alternate anti-filibuster argument is that there has never been a successful filibuster of a cabinet-level nominee, but this claim is also false. It is difficult – if not impossible – to show that such a filibuster has never succeeded, given the broad definition of the term. Several cabinet-level nominees have withdrawn following delays on consideration of their nominations. John R. Bolton’s nomination by President George W. Bush to be U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations – a cabinet-level position under Presidents Clinton and Obama but not President Bush – also was not confirmed after a concerted, Democratic-led filibuster. Bolton received a recess appointment in 2005 and left office at the end of 2006 after the Senate again failed to act on his nomination.

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by rivergator

Republicans are filibustering to prevent a vote. First time ever for a defense secretary nominee, I think.

Dem's have no room to criticize filibustering

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Good

Hagel Nomination Fails to Advance in Senate


By SARA MURRAY And JULIAN E. BARNES

WASHINGTON—Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked at least temporarily the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense, as partisan fighting in Congress reached a high level of intensity.


The animosity between Sen. John McCain and Chuck Hagel has been on full display. But any push to derail Hagel's Defense nomination vote this week could prove awkward for Sen. McCain, who needs to work across the aisle on immigration reform.


The vote, on a procedural motion, doesn't mean that Mr. Hagel's nomination has failed, but it provided a fresh example of the gridlock that has marked Congress. Republicans invoked rules to force Mr. Hagel to win 60 votes in the 100-member chamber, a standard that had been applied only to two prior cabinet nominees.

[Row6]

Originally Posted by gatorman_07732

Dem's have no room to criticize filibustering

Look at stats on cloture votes for all of US history. Since 2007 when republicans lost the Senate that have broken every record and exponentially - it's not even close.

If they want to pick the Sec of Defense they might start by winning presidential elections, They've lost the vote in 5 of the last 6.

[gatorman_07732]

Originally Posted by Row6

Look at stats on cloture votes for all of US history. Since 2007 when republicans lost the Senate that have broken every record and exponentially - it's not even close.

If they want to pick the Sec of Defense they might start by winning presidential elections, They've lost the vote in 5 of the last 6.

Why since 2007? Why not go back further ? Want to stack things in your favor perhaps.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Row apparently thinks Obama getting elected makes him king. "A king can do what he wants."