So in the end after all the kicking and screaming by senate Republicans Hagel has been confirmed. What is frustrating is that after all that hand wringing this was ultimately about Republicans wishing to send a message to President Obama that they will control his legislative agenda. This obsessive need to stall every appointment only underscores the reason why we need filibuster reform. It takes a certain amount of gall to attempt to delay the first nomination of secretary of defense who actually served in the military. Indeed it was one of his shining qualifications. He earned
two purple hearts serving alongside his brother, who was awarded three. Progressives have little to cheer over this nomination other then we got the Republicans to filibuster a Republican accused of being moderate.
We need to re-open the rules. It is this political grandstanding that is killing our country and the political process by a bunch of people who are destroying our economy because freedom .
The senators tried really hard to force President Obama to withdraw the nomination. In fact those 15 intripid republican senators wrote a Sternly Worded Letter which the Whitehouse properly dismissed.
According to NPR
After an unprecedented filibuster by Republicans, the nomination of Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense prevailed, Tuesday afternoon.
With a vote of 58 to 41, the Senate acted mostly along party lines to confirm Hagel.
Hagel was a two-term Republican senator from Nebraska. As our friend Ken Rudin explained in January, Hagel served in Vietnam, where he won two Purple Hearts and he will become the first Vietnam veteran to head up the U.S. Department of Defense
When Obama made the nomination, he said in Hagel he had found someone who understood "the consequences of decisions we make in this town."
The Senate Armed Services Committee had voted earlier to approve the Hagel nomination, but Republicans held up an up-or-down vote in front of the whole Senate citing issues with Hagel's stand on Iran.
NPR notes that:
Davis says [Graham's actions against Hagel] masks votes Graham has taken that conflict with small-government ideals. Graham voted for the bank bailout, once worked on climate change legislation and voted for the recent fiscal cliff deal that allowed taxes to rise on the wealthiest Americans.
Jon Soltz over at the Huffington continues about Davis with his write up:
Davis was once talked about as a primary challenger against Graham. Now, he's decided against a challenge.
It's either play ball with the Tea Party fringe, or get booted. Want to be responsible, to a degree? Forget it, if it means even thinking about talking with Democrats. This is now an all-out battle to see if reasonable Republicans can survive, let alone have a millimeter of leeway. The fight between the two wings of the Republican Senate Caucus has now come to a head, and the Republican Party is much weaker for it.
"All of those things have caused individuals to wonder whether or not [Graham] is representative of the type of conservative or the type of Republican that we need in Washington, D.C., right now," he says.
The amount of nonsensical questions at this hearing underscored just how tone deaf Republicans are. Hagel is a Republican and the fact that this is the first time in our history that a secretary of defense has been filibustered says just how broken our republic is.
I was not happy with this pick but I will not lament that the fact that they will do this to anyone underscores how much we need filibuster reform. There were many strong Democrats that could have filled this position. I don't especially remember many Democrats being appointed under Bush and Cheney's reign of unitary executive power. Do you? These people are fundamentally against trying to actually govern. It has been clear since President Obama was elected that they want to do everything to stop his right of center policies.
Are you listening Harry?
"This is the first time in the history of our country that a presidential nominee for secretary of defense has been filibustered," Reid said Wednesday on the Senate floor. "What a shame. But that's the way it is."
According to the New York Times:
Just four republicans voted for his confirmation: Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Mr. Paul and Richard Shelby of Alabama.
Earlier on Tuesday, John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said Mr. Hagel’s worldview was “dangerously misguided,” and he warned that the nominee was ill prepared to handle such a major post. “I don’t think we want a secretary of defense that has to learn on the job,” he added.
But Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, accused Republicans of stalling the nomination earlier this month for political gain.
“What has their filibuster gained? Twelve days later, nothing has changed,” he said. “Senate Republicans have delayed for the better part of two weeks for one reason and one reason only: partisanship.”
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You don't say?
Can you say climate change?
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