http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/...ll-obama-nominations-205800626--election.html
Harry Reid will reject GOP efforts to stall Obama nominees
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will not honor any "holds" used by Senate Republicans to stall votes on President Barack Obama's nominations to lead the Department of Defense and the CIA, the Nevada Democrat said Tuesday.
"A hold means nothing," Reid said during his weekly press briefing.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham had vowed to use a holdâan informal procedure in which senators inform Senate leaders they oppose a bill or nomination reaching the floor in order to stall a voteâon defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel and CIA director nominee John Brennan. He said he needs to hear more information about the deadly September attack on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya, before proceeding. Graham, who made his vow on CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday, added that he did not think the Senate should vote on the nominations "until the White House gives us an accounting" of events surrounding the attack, but he stopped short of vowing a filibuster.
Reid, who said he planned to schedule a vote on Hagel's nomination later this week, said he would ignore Graham's request.
In response, Graham called the planned vote "a mistake."
"We don't have enough information," Graham told Yahoo News. "We're not going to get jammed on something this important."
http://news.yahoo.com/senate-panel-approves-hagel-pentagon-chief-220839276.html
Senate panel approves Hagel for Pentagon chief
WASHINGTON (AP) â A bitterly divided Senate panel on Tuesday approved President Barack Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to be the nation's defense secretary in a rancorous session at which Republican questioned the former GOP senator's truthfulness and challenged his patriotism.
On a party-line vote of 14-11, the Armed Services Committee voted to send the nomination to the full Senate, where Republicans have threatened to delay a vote on the president's choice to succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
Democrats have the votes to confirm Hagel, a twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran and former two-term Nebraska senator, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he would press ahead with a vote on the most divisive nominee of Obama's second-term national security team.
Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., said after the hearing that he was hopeful the Senate could confirm Hagel by week's end.
Hagel has faced fierce opposition from Republicans who have challenged his past statements and votes on Israel, Iran, Iraq and nuclear weapons, but the two-hour-plus session took an uncomfortable turn for some members of the traditionally bipartisan panel.
Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, insisted that Hagel provide information on compensation for paid speeches over a five-year period â three years more than required â and suggested that without the information, the committee wouldn't know whether Hagel got money from "extreme and radical groups."
By DONNA CASSATA | Associated Press â 1 hr 28 mins ago
