His confirmation hearing performance was universally described as "lackluster" at best - and far worse by many accounts.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told Kentucky TV station CN2 this past weekend that he was "not clear yet" whether the nomination of Chuck Hagel, President Barack Obama's nomination to be the next Defense Secretary will need a simple majority of 51 votes, or 60 votes to secure the confirmation, raising the possibility of a filibuster of Hagel. McConnell also did not indicate whether he back the president's pick for that post.
McConnell has discussed the intensifying opposition toward Hagel who appeared seemingly unprepared at his confirmation hearing before a largely hostile confirmation hearing. Over the weekend, more than a dozen Democrats and two Republicans have announced their support for Hagel, including Nebraska GOP Sen. Mike Johanns who said, "Chuck earned this endorsement." About a dozen Republicans have said they will vote against his nomination.
According to reports, Hagel did such a poor job in making the case that he should be Defense Secretary that even Robert Gibbs, Obama's first press secretary said, "the disconcerting thing obviously that, for anybody to watch, it was he seemed unimpressive and unprepared on the questions that quite frankly he knew was coming," Gibbs said on NBC's "Meet the Press". But he added, "Chuck Hagel is an infantryman who's had to execute the orders of the secretary of defense and the commander-in-chief and understands what those people go through and he's going to be a good secretary of defense."
Last week, Republican Senator John McCain angrily labeled Hagel as "on the wrong side" of history when it came to the Iraq War during the hearing. McCain had long been seen as a champion of the troop surge in Iraq, and disparaged Hagel over his opposition to that escalation of the war, labeling Hagel's concerns as "bizarre" and "nonsense."
The former Nebraskan senator was the lone witness at the jam-packed hearing.
