Hagel Nomination To Move Forward This Week
After being delayed last week, Chuck Hagel’s nomination to be the next Secretary of Defense will move forward this week:
Sources close to the fight over former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel nomination as Secretary of Defense tell CBS News the Senate Armed Service Committee will vote on the nomination Tuesday and the full Senate could consider the Hagel nomination as early as Thursday.
Senate and White House sources say committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have grown impatient with Republican requests for more information from Hagel or the White House and will seek a quick end to the confirmation battle.
Levin is expected to announce his intentions later today.
Levin and Reid continue to rely on assurances that GOP leaders will not stage a filibuster against Hagel. Most Republicans are expected to vote against Hagel’s confirmation, but Democrats stand solidly with President Obama’s nominee, meaning Hagel has enough votes to prevail on a simple majority vote.
This will be the time when we see whether these threats of holds or filibusters amount to anything. My guess is that they won’t.
So the GOP’s tantrum accomplishes little, but does manage to waste time, energy, media attention and the American public’s patience.
The committee GOP is threatening a walk-out, I assume for the sake of placating their base some more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/chuck-hagel-vote-gop-threatens-walkout-87444.html
Inhofe & Graham are threatening filibuster.
BTW, this ‘graph from the politico article is just laughable:
Bipartisan spirit???
@Jeremy R: I hear Graham is threatening to hold his breath until his face turns blue.
A hold be Graham would presumably stop at least the floor vote on Thursday; I don’t know if it would preclude a committee vote. We’ll see if it’s forthcoming.
Is there a difference between a hold and a filibuster?
The most amusing thing about this little temper tantrum from Butters is that it may not even help him to avoid being Teabagged next year…the poor dear…
Do the Republicans even have a clue how to choose their battles? Really – they’re going to fight over a Republican former senator from Nebraska who would have been McCain’s choice for the same office? At least in the past they could fall back upon a modicum of loyal opposition, country-first rhetoric with their opposition to the president’s nominees and policies.
The stupidity is astounding.