snomination . Nomination . S here are the numbers online. Also find us send us a tweet cspanwj. Here are the headlines in the morning papers. The Washington Times this is the headline in the Baltimore Sun have line in roll call the headline in roll call Meredith Shiner joins us. How unusual is it to have the president s pick for defense secretary block at this stage . Guest it has never happen before. A senate has never filibustered the president s pick for defense secretary. The most bizarre thing, and the thing that is most frustrating to people watching this outside washington, is that a former senator hagel is a former is a former republican. With 58 bouts, and the reason why it was 58 was because majority leader harry reid had to switch his vote to know to bring the vote back up again after the senate comes back from recess. You have a lot of republican senators who said as recently as last week that they did not want to see the choice filibuster. Even if they wanted to vote no, he at least deserved an uptown vote to be approved. There was no precedent precedent to filibuster president s choice like this. The republicans decided they wanted to try to use this vote as a way to extract more information from the white house on the issues like the terrorist attack on benghazi in september. They submitted to passing hagel when they come back. It way youre looking at, is delaying the inevitable. Chuck hagel will be confirmed as defense secretary. He is just going to get to wait 11 days. To me, it seems like you should confirm him, because youre going to confirm him anyway. It is just another delay in what the senate is trying to do. Harry reid set a new vote for tuesday, in 11 days. What do republicans want to see in the meantime . Guest they say they would like answers again from the white house, more details about what the president did and did not do in the hours following the terrorist attack in libya. The white house sent a letter to senators john mccain, Lindsey Gramm, kelly ayotte, who have been demanding more information. They hoped from soundness yesterday or the day before that they would be able to change minds and make these centers senators vote yes. There is information that republicans say they want. It also seems like they were unhappy with his pick, they wanted wanted a different tack, and they did not they did not want to be conciliatory about it. Host 1 vote for present. Why did they go that way . Guest senator hatch of voted present. It beats me why he did. You either vote yes or no. There is a rumor that he did not believe in the filibuster. If you do not believe in the filibuster, you should probably vote yes. Republican leadership was actively whipping. That would be the reason. Of the people who voted to block it, one was Center Collins senator collins from the northeast. Also, senator johanns from nebraska, who was one of senator hagels colleagues from nebraska. Host what happens from here in terms of having a defense secretary . Guest i think the white house is irritated. Democrats are irritated. You saw that on the floor multiple times when you saw senator reid railing against republicans and their decision to do this. It does not look a great. It sends a message to the world our senate is so dysfunctional that it refuses to confirm one of its own. 11 days from now, there will be a defense secretary, and it will be final. Host Meredith Shiner, thank you so much. Were asking you what you think about this turn of developments. Senate republicans have blocked the chuck hagel nomination. It will proceed in 11 days time, when harry reid set the next vote. Here is a statement from the white house as we go on, we will hear from republicans about why they voted the way they did. We will read some more in the news. But he would brandon has a say in ohio, a republican column. Good morning. Caller i live in the North Central part of ohio. I believe that the republicans did the correct thing by mounting this will not to proceed. It is very frustrating for somebody like me to see the majority leader harry reid, on the senate floor and give ashe deal come up on the senate floor and give a temper tan trum. I do not believe the president has the right to have his defense secretary affirmed. It is the senates job to affirm the nominee. If republican senators want to vote no, that is their choice. The majority leader should not shamed the republicans into voting yes because he thinks that is the correct thing to do. Host what do you make of the reporter we just talked to, mentioning that he may get confirmed in two weeks time . Does that change your opinion . Caller i think there is more time to review his record. You had two days since he was approved by the Armed Services committee. I do have concerns about his record on Nuclear Weapons with iraq. Senator reid said he thinks iran should not have a nuclear weapon. His concern about north korea. Clearly his record in the past points otherwise. I think it is important to choose somebody whos concerned about these serious threats, more than chuck hagel has shown. Host from north carolina, on the democrats line. Caller i think republicans did the right thing. I generally do not accept anything they do, because i think they are totally dysfunctional, but in this instance, i am concerned about chuck hagel as a defense minister. He has shown a whole flipflop on his decisions, when he was interviewed by the republicans. His refusal to divulge investments concerns me. His views on israel i do not think he is a good choice. I think this is the one time republicans have smacked it right on the nail. Look at onetake a of the republicans who spoke on the floor yesterday. Lindsey gramm, of South Carolina. There are very uncomfortable things about this nomination, but having said that, unless something new comes out, we should proceed to a vote up or down, and im willing to invoke cloture, because as senator mccain said, the weekend. It will give us a chance to answer these questions. The week period will give us a chance to answer these questions. There was a speech by senator hagel, and one of his aides, posted based on his notes, what he said on the web site. Senator hagel said the United States state department was an extension of the israeli government. Things like that are unnerving. There is at least one speech he gave that he did not report that we think there is a copy of that we may get in the next few days. That is why i should i would oppose cloture today. I will vote for it after the recess. Host senator Lindsey Gramm of South Carolina. Joe is on our independent line. Caller i have interest in giving you a call because i have been doing research on the government. At this time, i have to publicize to the world that the government has committed an act of tyranny. They are doing what they should they are not doing what they should be done be doing for the sake of our people. And this time to play hardball against these individuals were shown in the past 80 years who have not been in the better interest of our children. That means 300 million of us need to get really involved in our government and participate. These guys do not care about this. History is showing it. The congress and senate this is why the federalists, james madison, set up the federalist act the new that this would transpire. They knew that this would transpire. These loopholes that congress is pushing past and pushing back, they are never going to truly do it for the better interests of the people. The people need to truly wake up. We are seeing these guys getaway get away with an act of tyranny. Host this is from time magazine. Filibustering the nominee has only happened twice in senate history. 1987, when Ronald Reagan nominated commerce secretary he eventually passed 8411. The second came when george gabi bush w. Bush nominated and interior secretary he was confirmed by voice vote. Nine president ial nominees have a been brought down by failed votes in the senate. Tower had an abysmal confirmation hearing, which lost him support. Lets listen to what john mccain had to say on the senate floor yesterday talking about the history of the john tower nomination. The distinguished chairman and i were here back in 1988. On december 16, john tower was nominated to be secretary of defense. On january 25, 1989, his confirmation hearing began. On february 2, the committee postponed confirmation votes after allegations raised. On february 8, the Committee Vote was delayed until february. February 23, he was voted out of committee. March 10 was a time when the senate rejected the nomination by 5347. I was there. I saw one of the worst things i have ever seen in the history of the senate, the way they dragged out senator john tower, a good and decent mans reputation in allegation after allegation, all of which turned out to be false. I would like to inform my colleagues, this is not the first time we have had a delay in confirmation of the secretary of defense. I will be glad to go over what i saw, including allegations that were thrown out week after week, that destroyed a good and decent man in john tower. Host senator john mccain talking about in 1988 incident when a senator john tower was the secretary of defense nominee for sec for president george h. W. Bush. Our next caller from tennessee, on the republican line. Caller i think republicans made a mistake. I remember the john tower. Tower period. A number of things came out about his personal life and things people did not particularly care for, but substantively, i like the fact that chuck hagel voted against movement into iraq. Our local congressman did that. I supported that at the time. Very frankly, they made a mistake there. War is not something a secretary of defense always assets has to support. Chuck hagel as a combat record that exceeds most of what people have done in this area. He has been in the senate. Senators know him. He will be confirmed later on. I think it makes the Republican Party look silly in this case. I understand the have and advise and consent role. I support that. However, in this case, i think they made a mistake. Host the Washington Times examines what happens now jenny in seattle, washington, a democrat. Rather, jerry. Caller what i would like to say is, the filibuster, it is designed to obstruct and blocked president obama as a president. I feel like a democratic president should be able to put into the cabinet who he wants to put in that position. The simple fact is, he is the president. Why should a democratic president allow people like Lindsey Gramm, john mccain, who ran for president the federalist papers speaks directly about the filibuster. Hamiltons book about this. When a small minority is able to is able to stop the progress of the American People, please put somebody in have of them speak on the filibuster. Pull some put somebody in and have them speak on the filibuster. Host here are some quotes about the luster the filibuster. An independent culpa call from michigan. Caller there are more important issues. I think this is a slap to our presidency and an insult. Host on twitter being park, illinois, chris and the republican line. Caller if you look closely at what republicans are objecting to, it is one or two things. Especially because mr. Hagel is a republican, he looks alarmed getting attacked on those accounts. If he has an honest disagreement with them, they should take that up in another form. To bring that to National Defence seems to be titfortat at this that are dick at this point. It seems they are going to nominate him anyways. Titfortat at this point. It seems that they are going to nominate him anyways. Host on twitter you can join the conversation on our twitter feed by writing cspanwj. Well take a look at Facebook Comments singh. Doris, in chicago. Caller i think what we have is the tyranny of the minority. I think the Republican Party and the conservative movement, they are antiamerican. They hate the american government. Why would they filibuster ahead of the Defense Department when we have a war going on in afghanistan, we have unrest in the middle east, we have on rest in africa, and they are playing politics with the department of defense . Senator cruz reminds me of john mccarthy. These are the mccarthy hearings. They are bringing them back. They are unpatriotic. To wrap themselves in the flag and pretend like they love this country they wrap themselves in the flag and pretend like they love this country. 25 of republicans want to secede from this country. Host brian from cincinnati, ohio. Caller this womans statement was a democratic byline. This is the way the senate was supposed to work. It would be nice they pass a budget. Senator reid does not want to bring that up. It would be nice if they took up the 26 bills the house of representatives sent them. Now they are moaning and groaning. Host here is what the wall street journal s says steve, minneapolis, a republican color. Caller hello, i think it is a good thing that his nomination has been blocked so far. The reason i say that is because everyone appears to agree that his nomination hearing was somewhat underwhelming. It occurs to me that if he cannot accord himself well before his own peers, why in the world would he make a good defense secretary . I think people need to ask that question. That is all i have. Host lets look morena the wall street journal more at journal street lets listen to one of the defenders of senator hagel. This is senator jack reed, democrat of rhode island, talking about the former senators credentials. The other thing that is so impressive is that it is not just one dimensional was a businessman, successful, created jobs, created opportunity, was the deputy administrator of the veterans administrative administration. He has run a large federal administration. Very seldom do people come into one of these positions being the secondincommand of large of a large federal agency. Then being a United States senator he knows the procedures of the United States congress. To me, one of the most compelling endorsements comes from those who did the job before him. When bob gates says this is the man for the job, you have got to believe them. Host senator reid talking about the chuck hagels nomination to be defense secretary. Hunter in tennessee, on our democrats line. Caller thank you for taking my call. I cannot believe the republicans possibly having an altered an ulterior motive have experienced this in my life. I am a veteran, as is senator hagel. The biggest guys you get for, they turn them into war, have never served or their sons or daughters. Secondly, it seems an attempt for them to win over some friends in israel. My opinion is, he has been selected for the secretary of defense of the United States, not secretary of defense for israel. That is where i stand. Thank you. Host alfred, an independent from louisiana. Caller a couple of things, i will be real brief. First of all, i think the problem with hagel is the iraq war. He flipflopped. If you see that something is wrong, you change your mind. Second, he has to go purple hearts. If this is a filibuster, whether they call it or not, he has a majority of votes. They are not allowing a full vote. That is a filibuster. Israel why is it that anybody questions anything about what america does with israel, or questioning what israel does, it is on american unamerican . Disclosure is something that other defense secretary nominee is that is nothing new. That is another reason why they are holding him up. Republicans will not win if they keep doing stuff like this, because it makes them look amateur and they are better about the politics. Host here are some comments on facebook you can join that conversation on our facebook page. Lindsey is up next in miami. She is a republican. Caller good morning. Im calling to respond to this woman i think she is from somewhere, maryland . Somewhere on the east coast she was accusing the republicans of being unpatriotic. I want to tell her that i think senator graham is one of the best minded senators i have seen on tv. I think he lays everything out. I was watching him earlier too. He lay everything out so methodically. He made his point. The problem is, senator graham is one of the best centers we have in this nation. He is definitely patriotic. Along with him, all these senators questioning the nomination of chuck hagel the layout stepbystep why they lay out step by step why. The election so many people boded for barack a pauma just because he is black. They have no concern about voted for barack obama just because he is black. They have no concern about his views. He is not protecting the United States of america. Host let me ask you a question. Former senator chuck hagel is a republican. Caller it is not whether youre republican that is just to show you, they are being fair minded. They didnt vote for him just because he is republican. Int lets hear from john district heights, maryland. Caller listen, i do not watch sports to keep up with these politicians. I have been watching john mccain and Lindsey Graham for as long as i can remember. They are despicable hypocrites. It is unbelievable how American People cannot go back and look of their voting records, the eight years when george bush was in office, and see how many times they voted for his policies. It blows my mind with allies and hypocrisies. Dealing with chuck hagel . The man as a combat a veteran. This man has seen combat, seen people die, and understand the value of life the only thing these guys can win about is his personal statements and his International View on the nation of israel. If i was in the middle east, i would feel highly insulted and put aside that everytime something comes up, israel is the only state over there that has america with any concern. The only thing they talk about this man about is his statements on israel. What what he is saying is true is about israel. The only thing they can hold against him is what he says about israel. Israel is its own country about nuclear and country with Nuclear Weapons. Own country with