Republican former Senator Chuck Hagel has been nominated by President Obama to be the next Secretary of Defense.
It is a decision that does not particularly excite either sides of the aisle. Hagel has a history of rubbing both gay-rights activists and pro-Israel groups the wrong way. The Emergency Committee for Israel aired television ads out of Washington DC stations urging against Hagel’s endorsement, saying that it needs to “provide citizens with the facts they need to be sure that their public officials are supporting a strong US-Israel relationship.”
If nothing else, Hagel’s nomination does speak to Obama’s efforts toward bipartisanship.
“He always just did what he thought was right. He always was trying to do what he thought was the right thing and never gave much thought into how it might be received,” said Mike Buttry, Hagel’s former chief of staff. “He’s thinking about, ‘What do I have to do to do this job the best way I can do it?’” So far everything indicates that his confirmation will not meet significant resistance. Usually senators do well when it comes to having their Cabinet nominations confirmed.
