Chuck Hagel grilled in Senate confirmation hearing

Defence Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel has sought to allay concerns that he is anti-Israel and soft on Iran, at a testy confirmation hearing.

The Senate armed services committee grilled Mr Hagel over his past remarks, with a fellow Republican labelling the nominee's record "deeply troubling".

The former Nebraska senator told the panel he could not be defined by any individual quote.

The hearing will lead to a final Senate vote on Mr Hagel's appointment.

Correspondents say he will probably be confirmed by the committee.

Although Democrats control the Senate, they may need Republican support to overcome procedural hurdles that could stop Mr Hagel's nomination.

Charm offensive

If confiAt Thursday's public hearing, Mr Hagel said he was "fully committed" to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, with "all options" on the table.

"I will ensure our friend and ally Israel maintains its qualitative military edge in the region," he added.

Mr Hagel also addressed criticism over a remark he made in a 2008 book that the "Jewish lobby" intimidates decision-makers on Capitol Hill.

"I've already said, I regret referencing the Jewish lobby," he told the hearing. "I should have said the pro-Israeli lobby."

Mr Hagel would be the only Republican in President Barack Obama's cabinet if the Senate confirms him to replace outgoing Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.

Before his hearing, he held one-on-one meetings with 53 senators.

But only one Republican senator, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, has publicly backed him.

Once the hearing was under way, the Republican National Committee sent a news release saying Mr Hagel was the wrong choice to lead the Pentagon.

At least three Republicans on the Senate armed services committee have said they do not support his nomination.

Heated exchange

One of those is Senator Jim Inhofe, the top Republican on the panel, who said shortly after the hearing began: "Senator Hagel's record is deeply troubling and out of the mainstream."

There was also a heated exchange between John McCain and the Pentagon nominee.

The Arizona senator took his fellow veteran to task over remarks he made once that the 2006 Iraq troop surge would be "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam".But Democratic Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the committee, said his concerns had been allayed.

"Senator Hagel's reassurance to me," Sen Levin said, "that he supports the Obama administration's strong stance against Iran is significant."

The hearing is the first time Mr Hagel has publicly addressed the criticism against him.

In the past, he has opposed the idea of a military strike by either the US or Israel against Iran. He has also advocated including Iran on future peace talks in Afghanistan.

His remarks in 1998 that a nominee for an ambassadorial post was "openly, aggressively gay" also raised eyebrows. Mr Hagel has since apologised for that comment.rmed, he would be the first enlisted man - and the first Vietnam veteran - to run the Pentagon.

Clinton takes responsibility in Benghazi attack, clashes with Republicans

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee she took responsibility for not adequately protecting U.S. personnel in the Sept. 11 attack on a diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

 Defending the administration’s immediate handling of the attack, Clinton clashed at times with Republicans over the account the administration gave in the initial days after Sept. 11.  She told Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, “we did not have a clear picture” of all that was going on in Benghazi although she did acknowledge that senators had “legitimate questions” about the administration’s account.Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., -- after telling Clinton “we are proud of you” and that all over the world “you are viewed with admiration and respect” -- delivered a blistering criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the events in Libya.

“There are many questions that are unanswered and the answers you’ve given this morning are frankly not satisfactory to me,” McCain told Clinton. He added “the American people and the families of these four brave Americans still haven’t gotten the answers they deserve.”

He asked Clinton whether she was aware of numerous warnings from Stevens and other Americans in Libya that the facility in Benghazi was not capable of resisting a sustained assault. He also said there had been other warning signs such as an attack on the British ambassador to Libya.

He angrily asked Clinton why Defense Department forces were not nearby to defend the Benghazi facility.

Last month a report issued by the Accountability Review Board (ARB) appointed by Clinton, blamed State Department officials for “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” that led to protection for the Benghazi facility that was “grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”

In her response to McCain, Clinton said, as she did to other senators on the panel, that some additional information on the causes and circumstances of the attack is in the classified portions of the report issued by the ARB. Senators and Senate staff can read the classified portions of the ARB report, but the public cannot.And she blamed members of Congress for holding up additional aid to Libya that might make the country more secure and less chaotic. 

In his questioning of Clinton, Sen. Rand Paul, R- Ky., told her, “I’m glad that you’re accepting responsibility. I think that ultimately with your leaving, you accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11, and I really mean that. Had I been president at the time and I found that you did not read the cables from Benghazi, you did not read the cables from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post.”

He added, “It’s a failure of leadership” which cost the Americans in Benghazi their lives. “I think it’s good that you’re accepting responsibility-- because no one else is.”Paul also argued that U.S. personnel ought to never have been sent to Benghazi “in a war zone” without a military guard. “You shouldn’t send them in with the same kind of embassy staff that you have in Paris,” he added. 

Clinton replied that all four State Department officials criticized in the ARB report for their roles on the Benghazi events had been removed from their jobs and placed on administrative leave. “The ARB (report) made very clear that the level of responsibility for the failures that they outlined was set at the assistant secretary level and below.”

The furor over the Benghazi attack helped derail one possible nominee to replace Clinton at the State Department, UN ambassador Susan Rice, whom Republicans assailed for using administration talking points that portrayed the incident as a spontaneous response to an inflammatory anti-Islamic video.

But Clinton told the committee that in the hours and days after the attack, “I was not focused on talking points” and “I wasn’t involved in the talking points process.”

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But she said Rice and the Obama administration did not try to mislead the American people about the cause of the attacks. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said as she sparred with Sen. Ron Johnson, R- Wisc.

She angrily told Johnson that at this stage it did not really matter what the precise origins or motives of the attack were: “What difference at this point does it make?”

In her opening statement, Clinton told the committee, “As I have said many times since September 11, I take responsibility.  Nobody is more committed to getting this right.  I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger, and more secure.”

Clinton's voice choked with emotion as she recalled the return of “those flag-draped caskets” from the Americans killed in Benghazi and put her arms “around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters” of those killed. 

Clinton also used her testimony to deliver a vigorous call for continued U.S. involvement in the North African nation of Mali where the Obama administration is aiding French efforts to defeat Islamic jihadist forces.Clinton said she had accepted the ARBs recommendations for improvements in security procedures and had asked her subordinates “to ensure that all 29 of them are implemented quickly and completely.” She said these changes are designed to “reduce the chances of another Benghazi happening again.”

Clinton will also testify about the Benghazi episode Wednesday afternoon before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

On Thursday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold its confirmation hearing for Clinton’s successor, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who is the committee’s chairman and is likely to be confirmed without any opposition.

Sen. Mitch McConnell: ‘The Tax Issue Is Finished’

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. R-Ky., Sunday said he will not accept any new revenue in future deals with congressional Democrats and President Obama.

“The tax issue is finished.  Over. Completed,” McConnell told me on “This Week.” “That’s behind us. Now the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting our country and that’s our spending addiction.

“We didn’t have this problem because we weren’t taxing enough,” McConnell added.

He blamed Obama and Democrats for waiting to resolve budget issues until the last minute.

Read a transcript of the full interview with Sen.

“Why we end up in these last-minute discussions is beyond me. We need to function,” McConnell said. “I mean, the House of Representatives, for example, passed a budget every year.  They’ve passed appropriation bills.

“The Senate Democratic majority and the president seem to like these last-minute deals.”

McConnell said that the biggest issue facing the country in the next year is the deficit and spending. And he predicted that the issue would occupy the congressional agenda in the first three months of the year, overtaking Obama’s other priorities, including gun control.

“But the biggest problem we have at the moment is spending and debt,” McConnell said. “That’s going to dominate the Congress between now and the end of March.  None of these issues, I think, will have the kind of priority that spending and debt are going to have over the next two or three months.”

On the expected nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as the secretary of Defense by Obama, McConnell said he would evaluate Hagel’s past statements before determining whether he could support his nomination in the Senate.

“I’m going to take a look at all the things that Chuck has said over the years and review that, and in terms of his qualifications to lead our nation’s military,” McConnell said. “The question we will be answering if he’s the nominee, is do his views make sense for that particular job?  I think he ought to be given a fair hearing, like any other nominee, and he will be.”

McConnell, who in 2008 praised Hagel for his clear voice and stature on foreign policy and national security, now says he will reserve judgment on his possible nomination until after a Senate confirmation hearing.

“I’m going to wait and see how the hearings go and see whether Chuck’s views square with the job he would be nominated to do,” he added.