President Obama's nominee for Defense Secretary, former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, underwent a hostile grilling at the Armed Services Committee largely from Rethuglican Senators who are eager to score points against the President, more than object to Hagel's qualifications. Especially obnoxious was the line of questioning from the Dynamic Neocon Duo, Sen. John "Grumpypants" McCain and Sen. Lindsay "Huckleberry Closetcase" Graham. Grumpypants tried to vindicate the Iraq War debacle by demanding a "yes or no" answer to whether Hagel believed he was correct in saying the Iraq surge would be a blunder; when Hagel attempted to give anger management candidate Grumpypants a complete answer, Grumpypants cut him off. Likewise, Huckleberry Closetcase, who is showing he's petrified of a Tea Party challenge in 2014, tried to butch-up in pressing Hagel on whether Israeli lobbyists have an undue influence on our Middle East policy.
Hagel will probably get OK'ed by the Committee, mostly along party lines, and confirmed by the Senate, again along party lines. This hearing is illustrating clearly the choices in terms of national security policy, not only regarding defense budgets and strategy, but between the neocon / Likudnik view of the world which wants endless wars as long as they're against Muslim countries, and a sane view of America's commitments and capabilities in the world.
BONUS: Wonkette has the perfect description of Grumpypants' state of emotional disturbance:
"We are guessing John McCain needs a new wife, because if we were Cindy McCain, we woulda hightailed it to one of our other seven mansions a long time ago; McCain kind of seems like he’s graduated to that post-Vietnam-vet stage where he comes to in the middle of the night with his hands around her neck, and no idea how they got there."
(photo: Grumpypants and Huckleberry catching a date movie)
