Hagel nomination would face challenges from many quarters

>>> if news tonight out of washington, nbc confirming that president obama is likely to nominate this man, nebraska republican chuck hagel to be the next secretary of defense. mr. hagel served in the u.s. senate for two terms, starting in 1997 . he was considered in some ways a member of that vanishing species, the moderate republican back when it was not nearly so vanishing. senator hagel served on the intelligence committee and the foreign relations committee . after 9/11, he supported the patriot act with its sweeping new powers of surveillance. he also supported the war in iraq . at the time those were reasonably centrist positions for a republican to hold. but a couple of years into the iraq war , senator chuck hagel came out and said that america's war in iraq was starting to look to him like the war he himself fought in as an army infantry officer. it was starting to look to him like vietnam . he said that between those two war, quote, there is a parallel emerging. a couple of months later, he laid down this gauntlet to those on his own side who had gotten all over him for questioning the iraq war . he said, quote, to question your government is not unpatriotic. to not question your government is unpatriotic. america owes its men and women in uniform a policy worthy of their sacrifices. a couple of years later when the president announced that he wanted to send another 20,000 american troops into the war in iraq , senator hagel responded the next day by saying that escalating the war in that way could become, quote, the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since vietnam . because he was a republican, because he was a decorated vietnam combat veteran, because he had originally supported the iraq war , chuck hagel became one of the highest profile iraq war critics in the country. even as a republican, he was talked about as a potential vice presidential running mate for barack obama in the '08 campaign. on the other side, it was interesting. the republican nominee that year, john mccain said that chuck hagel could have a place in a john mccain presidential administration. mitch mcconnell said at the time, quote, in two terms in the senate, chuck has earned the respect of his colleagues and risen to national prominence as a clear voice on foreign policy and national security . so through all of those years, through all of his willingness to criticize his own side on the most highly politicized issues in the country, senator chuck hagel was able to hold on to the good graces of his fellow republicans for all of those years, until now. now they say they are over him, because now republican chuck hagel is looking like the person president obama would like to put in charge of the pentagon. josh rogan at foreign policy first breaking the news on the nomination and noting in the same breath all the republican senators that are against the nomination. john cornyn saying he can't support chuck hagel because he has a, quote, problem with israel. senator dan coates said chuck hagel has had so much disrespect for the military which is a pretty rich thing to say about a veteran. he would lack experience he would need for the job. senator mccain says his colleague barely even counts as a republican. senator mark kirk says he is, quote, concerned about mr. hagel . mr. hagel also faces opposition from the democratic side for the time back in 1998 when he opposed an ambassador nominee for being what mr. hagel described at the time openly aggressively guy, for which he finally apologized last month. there is also opposition to a lesser extent just because chuck haguele is a republican. this is not ideological opposition. it's partisan. but in the technical sense of that. why is it that democratic presidents always appoint republicans to run the pentagon, but republican presidents never appoint democrats to do the same? why would democrats do that again? why would democrats keep underscoring that caricature that republicans are the only ones to be trusted on defense? you can see just counting on your fingers that the nomination of chuck hagel should it go through could be a whale of a fight. maybe the first really big fight of 2013 . hold on there