My Comment: If you want to listen to and/or watch the hearing .... the above video has it all (i.e. 6 hours worth). I must confess that I did listen to most of it .... actually more as back ground noise while I did other stuff.
What's my impression of the hearing .... in short .... Sen. Chuck Hagel was not prepared .... and for me that was a surprised. He knows that he has a long history of making public remarks that most Americans will disagree with .... and he should have known that they would be brought up in these hearings. But he was not ready, and Senator's McCain and Graham were very successful in putting him on the spot. My guess is that being a former senator .... he probably thought that he would have the same pass that was afforded to Sen Kerry when he had his confirmation hearing for Secretary of State a few days ago. LOL .... that certainly did not happen today.
Are there enough votes to derail this confirmation .... definitely not. The Democrats are going to vote as one, and Chuck Hagel will be the next Secretary of Defense. But Chuck Hagel did lose some political capital, and he must now be ready to expect even more harsher questions when defense budget cutbacks are proposed and submitted to Congress in the near future.
But the real target for today's hearings was not Chuck Hagel .... it was President Obama. And while his name was only mentioned a few times .... he was the 800lb gorilla in the room that everyone was conscious of. He may now has his nominee .... but if today's hearings are any indication .... the real battle is about to begin.
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