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John McCain Concedes That Chuck Hagel Will Be Confirmed

Doug Mataconis
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Despite the fact that it’s currently on hold thanks to a GOP filibuster, even one of the leaders of that filibuster concedes that Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Defense Secretary will ultimately be approved by the Senate:

One of the leading critics of former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), President Obama’s embattled nominee to become Defense secretary, told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that Hagel will end up being confirmed.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that Hagel will be approved by the Senate even though he is the “most unimpressive” nominee he has ever seen.

“The fact is that Chuck Hagel made statements and took votes in the United States Senate particularly about Iran, his comments about Israel were atrocious, but he will be confirmed,” he said.

“We will have a vote when we get back and I am confident that Sen. Hagel probably will have the votes necessary to be confirmed as the secretary of Defense,” McCain added.

McCain voted with all but four other Republicans on Thursday to filibuster Hagel’s nomination. He said Sunday that he did so to get enough time to more closely examine Hagel’s record. He said that delaying the vote until after this week’s recess provides a reasonable amount of time for consideration.

The senator, who claimed he is still a friend of Hagel’s, said he will vote against the nomination after supporting an end to debate.

“I don’t believe he is qualified but I don’t believe we should hold up his nomination any further. I think it is a reasonable amount of time to have questions answered,” he said.

It makes you wonder what this whole silly Republican spectacle has been about.

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13 responses to “John McCain Concedes That Chuck Hagel Will Be Confirmed”

  1. michael reynolds Avatar
    michael reynolds

    What’s it about?

    1) Toadying the Israeli lobby.

    2) Butching up Graham so he can head off a right-wing primary challenge.

    3) Ensuring that Meet The Press still books McCain.

    4) Generalized flailing and impotent rage from a discredited party.

  2. edmondo Avatar
    edmondo

    The man who chose Sarah Palin to sit a heartbeat away from the presidency thinks Chuck Hagel is unqualified?. McCain has become a poster child forGOP’s petty petulance.

  3. OzarkHillbilly Avatar
    OzarkHillbilly

    John McCain: I am not irrelevant! I am NOT IRRELEVANT!! I AM NOT IRRELEVANT!!!!

    ……………

    Ok, well, maybe a little irrelevant…..

  4. legion Avatar
    legion

    It makes you wonder what this whole silly Republican spectacle has been about.

    No it doesn’t – we’ve known what it was about all the time. It’s about immature children – especially Lindsey Graham – throwing a tantrum to stay in the spotlight, while simultaneously damaging our national security and making himself look like a complete idiot. The hippies were right all the time…

  5. Gold Star for Robot Boy Avatar
    Gold Star for Robot Boy

    Shorter McCain: “Sure, this is a pointless tantrum – but, dammit, this is OUR pointless tantrum!”

  6. Ron Beasley Avatar
    Ron Beasley

    Get off my lawn!!!!

  7. Mark Ivey Avatar
    Mark Ivey

    “2) Butching up Graham so he can head off a right-wing primary challenge.”
    ——————————————-

    You betcha.. 🙂

  8. al-Ameda Avatar
    al-Ameda

    The senator, who claimed he is still a friend of Hagel’s, said he will vote against the nomination after supporting an end to debate.

    I think that Chuck will be the judge of THAT!

  9. Gromitt Gunn Avatar
    Gromitt Gunn

    @al-Ameda: Like the bible thumpers who claim they have a ton of gay friends who respect their positions.

  10. Neil Hudelson Avatar
    Neil Hudelson

    @michael reynolds:

    You forgot sticking it to Obama no matter what.

    I think if Obama had nominated McCain himself McCain would rally against it.

  11. bk Avatar
    bk

    Wow! John McCain was on Meet The Press! What a great get for them! That hasn’t happened before!

  12. Jim Henley Avatar
    Jim Henley

    I think what it’s actually about is that McCain is lying. By the time the Senate takes the nomination up again he and the rest of the filibusters can announce, more in sorrow than in anger, that their requests for delay have: a) turned up troubling new allegations that need further investigation or prove Hagel’s lack of fitness; b) the White House refusal to cooperate with their requests for further information leaves them unable to go forward; c) “Look, a bear!”

    The GOP intends to launch impeachment proceedings against Obama because he’s a reelected Democrat. They’ve decided that they can build Benghazi up into a “high crime” for that purpose. Short of that they’ll make the country as ungovernable as possible with an eye toward first 2014 and then 2016. Feints at reasonableness, like an empty statement when it doesn’t count about Hagel being confirmed, are just feints at reasonableness. At this point the GOP would probably filibuster John Bolton and Avigdor Lieberman.

  13. Just 'nutha ig'rant cracker Avatar
    Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker

    By the way, is this the same John McCain who said that he wouldn’t support a filibuster in the first place and then said that he wasn’t supporting the filibuster, he was just NOT supporting cloture (at this time), or is this a different John McCain?

    He is starting to remind me of what someone said about Clinton at the time of Monica Lewinsky: “every word that he says is a lie, including ‘a,’ ‘and,’ and ‘the.’”

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