White House Staffing, Pentagon | featured news

Republicans have, for now, blocked Chuck Hagel's nomination to become defense secretary.

Chuck Hagel, President Obama's choice to lead the Pentagon, has enough Senate votes committed to him to overcome a filibuster and secure the nomination, according to Sen. Carl Levin and an administration source working on the issue.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Saturday that there's a chance Republicans will filibuster former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel's nomination as secretary of defense. "Sen. Hagel did not do a very good job before the Armed Services committee," McConnell said. "I think the opposition to him is intensifying. Whether that means he will end up having to achieve 60 votes or 51 is not clear yet." McConnell did not say how he planned to vote.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Friday he believes former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, who had a rocky confirmation hearing on Thursday, will be confirmed by the Senate as U.S. defense secretary.

Making his first public comments after his nomination to lead the Pentagon, former Sen. Chuck Hagel said he stood by his record but also urged senators to look beyond controversial votes and statements he made that critics have seized on.

U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, once the top commander in Iraq and then Afghanistan, will leave the Pentagon Wednesday for the halls of the CIA next week.

With the departure of Robert Gates at the Pentagon, the pending shakeup of the national security team would move Gen. David Petraeus to the CIA. Lt. Gen. John Allen would then replace Petraeus, officials say. President Obama is expected to name CIA Director Leon Panetta as his new Defense secretary and is expected to make David Petraeus, the general now commanding troops in Afghanistan, head of the CIA, according to U.S.

Robert Gates The Secretary of Defense will continue in that position in the Obama administration for at least another year, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday. "Secretary Gates met with the president just before Christmas and gave him a commitment to stay on the job for at least another year," Geoff Morrell, deputy assistant secretary of defense and Pentagon press secretary, told CNN. Gates served as Secretary of Defense in the last two years of the Bush administration and stayed on in the post when President Obama took office.