Senate Republicans are signaling that there could be a heated battle to confirm former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, preemptively blasting Hagel on the Sunday talk-show circuit yesterday.
On Sunday, three GOP Senators gave a preview of what could be in store for Hagel's confirmation hearings. Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz all suggested that they believed Hagel wasn't a good choice. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, also issued a preemptive statement that was critical of Hagel.
Graham, Cruz, and Cornyn all said directly that they would oppose Hagel and likely vote against his nomination.
Here's Graham on CNN's "State of the Union":
"I like Chuck Hagel. He served with distinction in Vietnam as an enlisted man — two Purple Hearts. But quite frankly, Chuck Hagel is out of the mainstream of thinking on most issues regarding foreign policy. [...]
"Chuck Hagel, if confirmed to be Secretary of Defense, would be the most antagonistic secretary of defense towards the State of Israel in our nation's history. Not only has he said you should directly negotiate with Iran, sanctions won't work, that Israel must negotiate with Hamas, an organization, terrorist group that lobs thousands of rockets into Israel. He also was one of 12 Senators who refused to sign a letter to the European Union trying to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
"He has long severed his ties with the Republican Party. This is an in your face nomination by the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel. I don't know what his management experience is regarding the Pentagon, little, if any, so I think it's an incredibly controversial choice."
Cruz, on "Fox News Sunday," said it would be "hard to imagine" a circumstance in which he would support Hagel:
"I do think it is interesting that the president seems hell-bent on nominating him despite of the fact that a number of prominent Republicans have criticized him and the Democratic senators have been surprisingly silent on it.
"I think this is a president right now who has drunk the tea. On election, he is feeling very good about himself, he is feeling like there can be no opposition to his position. And so, it doesn't seem — he doesn't seem terribly concerned that there's not a lot of support for Chuck Hagel in the Senate."
Cornyn, in a statement, called him the "worst possible message" to Israel:
I will not support Chuck Hagel’s nomination to the Department of Defense. His record and past statements, particularly with respect to rogue nations like Iran, are extremely concerning to me.
McConnell, the Senate's Minority Leader, didn't commit to a firm stance on whether he would oppose Hagel. But he said his views on Israel and Iran and "all the other positions that he's taken over the years will be very much a matter of discussion in the confirmation process."
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