Senators Rough Up Obama's Nominee to Run The Pentagon

If Chuck Hagel wins approval in the Senate to run the Pentagon, as President Obama desires, it'll be despite his performance in his confirmation hearing on Thursday, not because of it.

The former Nebraska Republican senator stumbled through questions ranging from his views on nuclear weapons, Iran, Israel and other issues. His Republican interlocutors sometimes seemed to revel in making Hagel's appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee an uncomfortable one. Numerous defense priorities that Hagel will face at the helm of the Pentagon took a back seat.

In his prepared remarks, Hagel portrayed himself as part of a continuum with Obama's previous defense secretaries. Under at times hostile questioning, Hagel had difficulty remembering what some of their decisions were. Speaking about a nuclear Iran, Hagel said he supported 'the president's strong position on containment,' before an aide passed him a note reminding him that Obama's stated policy is to prevent a nuclear Iran, not contain one. At another point, Hagel referred to Iran as an 'elected, legitimate' government, another statement he opted to walk back.

Hagel opted not to defend some of the positions that he's taken out of government. Last year, he signed onto a study outlining an 'alternative deterrence construct' (.PDF) for a revised and smaller nuclear force. Under repeated questioning, Hagel denied that the report made any advocacy at all, although the text describes its alternatives as 'possible and desirable.'

Other Hagel statements were head-scratchers. He referred to a cyberattack against the U.S. as having the potential to 'paralyze a nation in a second,' although, typically, assaults on U.S. networks involve data exfiltration. He declined to answer what the next U.S. steps would be toward Syria, and professed ignorance of the activities of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps ' prompting an incredulous Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to say, 'You watch TV, you read the newspapers.'

Hagel was always going to face a hostile hearing. Instead of quizzing him about defense strategy, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), once a close friend of Hagel's, badgered Hagel over the wisdom of his opposition to the Iraq surge, and grew angry when Hagel declined to make a mea culpa. Although Hagel already said he regretted saying the 'Jewish lobby' intimidated' legislators, Graham demanded he name names of the intimidated, prompting a clearly irritated Hagel to backtrack further. The ranking Republican on the panel, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, even asked Hagel why the 'Iranian foreign ministry so strongly supports your nomination.'

If all of this seems less than substantive, that's because largely senators, even some Democrats, preferred to make Hagel spend his time explaining prior statements, rather than outlining the steps he plans to take as a defense secretary. Hagel appeared more sure-footed when he mused on his Vietnam service to explain his opposition to the surge ' which effectively reiterated his reluctance toward troop-heavy interventions.

'I have one fundamental question on every vote I took, [and] decision I made,' Hagel said. 'Was the policy worthy of the men and women we were sending into battle, and, surely, to their deaths.' Hagel's confirmation hearing is still ongoing ' it's currently in a recess as I type this ' but numerous issues remain unaddressed, including the future course of the war on terrorism; the substance of the 'rebalance' to Asia; the development of next-generation weapons systems; and the U.S. defense posture in Africa.