That was how the writer from the New York times described it. Of course he will stay around until a replacement is confirmed.
Have been frustrated for years at Dem Presidents who appoint Republicans, and Hegel was no exception.
But not in a thousand years did I ever think he would be gone this quickly.
Credit: http://www.nytimes.com/...
Hagel Resigns Under Pressure as Global Crises Test Pentagon
New York Times -26 minutes ago
Administration officials said that Mr. Obama made the decision to remove Mr. Hagel, the sole Republican on his national security team, last Friday after a series of meetings between the two men over the past two weeks.
and
The officials characterized the decision as a recognition that the threat from the militant group Islamic State will require different skills from those that Mr. Hagel, who often struggled to articulate a clear viewpoint and was widely viewed as a passive defense secretary, was brought in to employ.
Mr. Hagel, a combat veteran who was skeptical about the Iraq war, came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestrations.
Now, however, the American military is back on a war footing, although it is a modified one. Some 3,000 American troops are being deployed in Iraq to help the Iraqi military fight the Sunni militants of the Islamic State, even as the administration struggles to come up with, and articulate, a coherent strategy to defeat the group in both Iraq and Syria.
Silly me, had hoped he was being let go for pressuring the President into another losing battle, one in a long series of US failures using military force.