Monday, January 7, 2013

Obama Nominates Hagel as Defense Secretary - Let the Battle Begin

I despise John Brennan, Obama's choice for the CIA.  The two American bloggers who have made the best case against him are Marcy Wheeler and Glenn Greenwald.

Regarding Chuck Hagel, I'm Hagelnostic.  The other front runners, Michele Flournoy and Ash Carter, are both so inside of the borg, they can’t even see the box from where they are, let alone the outside of it.  Reading some of their articles on defense policy last month was a good way to fall asleep.  We're not going to get Dennis Kucinich as a Defense Secretary.

The battle over Hagel will essentially be a contest over how much influence the blindly pro-Israel neoconservatives will be able to openly enforce.  This group works best behind the scenes, so an open C-SPAN-broadcast battle on the Senate floor against the confirmation of a former colleague would be unprecedented, and if they're stupid enough to try it, will most likely fail.

The best post-nomination roundup of reactions I've yet seen is by Philip Weiss, at Mondoweiss.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your post was a cropped at the begining, But I think I get the idea, "despise John Brennan, Obama's choice for the CIA." The silver lining will be to have the ability to question the man under oath about the activities that he participated in. That is if there is anybody willing to dig into these matters.

Anonymous said...

I don't have much of a problem with Hagel, either. Anyone who gets the republicans in the senate so worked up is okay in my book.

Blue_in_AK

Philip Munger said...

"The silver lining will be to have the ability to question the man under oath about the activities that he participated in. That is if there is anybody willing to dig into these matters."

--- I have no idea at all what you mean. Could you explain, please?

Anonymous said...

Senate confirmation hearings. Question and answer time.