Kaine on Committee Questioning Defense Secretary Nominee Hagel
As member of Armed Services Committee, Kaine says he hopes to get answers to important security issues.
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Virginia's newly minted U.S. senator, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who was sworn in last week, will be in the thick of things as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, charged with holding hearings on former Sen. Chuck Hagel's nomination to become Secretary of Defense.
President Obama made the announcement Monday. Kaine said he hopes to hear some specifics from the former GOP senator from Nebraska.
"Hagel is a decorated war hero with a strong record of bipartisanship on foreign policy and defense issues," Kaine said in a news release. "I will do all I can to ensure the confirmation hearing addresses important questions regarding the future of our military, the current budgetary challenges facing the country and other important security issues such as U.S. policy towards Iran.”
Hagel has many opponents in the GOP, and there has been controversy over his past views on gay rights and his position on Iran, the Washington Post points out.
Hagel, 66, served as a Republican senator from Nebraska from 1997 to 2009.
Kaine is one of 14 Democrats on the Senate committee. The Washington Post reports at least six of the 12 Republicans on the committee have expressed opposition to Hagel's nomination to the post.
If confirmed by the Senate, Hagel will replace Leon Panetta, who said he plans to retire to his farm in California.
joe brewer
3:26 pm on Wednesday, January 9, 2013
A rubber stamp Kaine is to this process. He is good for giving money away and unless someone reminds him he;ll forget who he is supposed to be questioning.
Marcus Aurelius
12:42 am on Thursday, January 10, 2013
Yeah, Kaine and that other rubber stamp guy, Colin Power, both support the President's nominee. Is this all that conservatives have the energy to do now---yap about the President's Cabinet nominees? Kinda makes you wonder about folks who are so obsessed with rubber stamps....