A combination photograph shows Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security John Brennan??President Barack Obama on Monday will formally nominate Republican former Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska to be defense secretary and top White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to be CIA director. The announcement, expected at the White House at 1:05 p.m., is Obama's latest move to round out his second-term national security team following his nomination of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.
Hagel, who earned two Purple Hearts in Vietnam and still carries shrapnel in his chest, would be the first former enlisted soldier to head the Pentagon. But his expected nomination has drawn fire from a handful of Republican senators, who point to his votes against sanctions on Iran and complaints about the "Jewish lobby" for Israel.
Hagel has also moved to defuse objections from the gay and lesbian community over remarks he made in 1998, when he criticized James Hormel, President Bill Clinton's choice for ambassador to Luxembourg, for being "openly, aggressively gay." He apologized last week, calling the remark "insensitive."
White House officials expect a confirmation fight?but say it is one they will ultimately win. They predict that Hagel, who served two terms in the Senate and left office in January 2009, will face tough questions about administration plans for implementing spending cuts at the Pentagon, about the increasingly tense standoff over Iran's nuclear program and about the looming troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
After voting in favor of the Iraq War in late 2002, Hagel infuriated conservatives by turning sharply against then-President George W. Bush's troop "surge." His outspoken criticisms drew fire from then-Vice President Dick Cheney.
"Let's say I believe firmly in Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican," Cheney told Newsweek in an interview. "But it's very hard sometimes to adhere to that where Chuck Hagel is involved."
Brennan's nomination to succeed retired Gen. David Petraeus?who left the CIA in November after admitting to an extramarital affair with his biographer?is not expected to face serious opposition. And the meatiest parts of his confirmation hearings will likely take place behind closed doors. Brennan could face sharp questions from liberal senators over Obama's controversial program of assassinating suspected extremists with drone strikes. Those attacks are deeply unpopular overseas, where they have been blamed for civilian casualties and tarred as violations of national sovereignty. But criticisms will likely focus more on the president's policies than on Brennan's general qualifications for the job.
Few aides, if any, better reflect Obama?s embrace of controversial Bush-era national security policies. After winning the White House in 2008, the president considered him to head the CIA, but Brennan withdrew his name from consideration when it became apparent that his service under Bush had rendered him unconfirmable. Liberal groups had accused him of failing to stop the ?enhanced interrogation techniques? that fit international definitions of torture, like waterboarding. In 2012, that connection is apparently no longer a disqualifier.
Obama?s decision to go with Hagel comes after the White House backed off a confirmation battle last month over U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who was widely seen as the president?s favorite to succeed Clinton. Administration officials assessed that Rice could not be confirmed after centrist Republican Senator Susan Collins came out against her.
Democrats have 55 votes in the Senate (including two independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine). Republicans have 45. Sixty are needed for confirmation.
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