U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) (C), who has voiced his opposition to the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense, listens as the Senate Armed Services Committee meets to vote on the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel to be Secretary of Defense on Capitol Hill February 12, 2013 in Washington, DC.
Photo: Allison Shelley/Getty Images
The Senate Armed Services Committee sent Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Defense Secretary to the full Senate this afternoon, thanks to unanimous support from Democrats and despite unanimous opposition from Republicans. (For the sake of comparison, Leon Panetta, Robert Gates, and Donald Rumsfeld, the past three Defense Secretaries, made it out of the Armed Services Committee without a single dissenting vote.) John McCain referred to Hagel’s testimony last week as “the worst that I have seen for any nominee for office.”
