Not Yet: GOP filibuster holding; Reid moves up Hagel cloture vote to 4:15

Chuck Hagel will not be defense secretary this week. The Republican filibuster proving unbreakable, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) moved up a now symbolic cloture vote to be held at 4:15 on Thursday. Three Republicans said they would ultimately vote to allow a final vote on Hagel’s nomination, but not until after next week’s ...

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call

Chuck Hagel will not be defense secretary this week.

Chuck Hagel will not be defense secretary this week.

The Republican filibuster proving unbreakable, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-NV) moved up a now symbolic cloture vote to be held at 4:15 on Thursday. Three Republicans said they would ultimately vote to allow a final vote on Hagel’s nomination, but not until after next week’s recess.

“That’s too bad,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who called the delay “a mistake.”

As a result, next week Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will attend a meeting of NATO defense ministers to discuss the Afghanistan war drawdown, instead of Hagel as the White House had hoped.

The Senate has started what will amount to roughly one hour of debate on Hagel’s nomination before Reid’s cloture vote is due. Reid had threatened to keep the Senate in session into the holiday weekend. Moving the vote to Thursday afternoon could allow for senators and their staffs to begin heading home on Friday.

Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge. Twitter: @FPBaron

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