Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn is the second senator on record saying he would vote against confirming Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense if the president chooses to nominate him. (Republican whip John Cornyn was the first.) Asked about the prospective nomination on this morning’s edition of Face the Nation, Coburn said, “I cannot vote for Chuck Hagel…just simply because of the sum of the positions that he’s taken and some of the statements that he’s taken.”
Hagel didn’t fare much better in the hands of Coburn’s Democratic foil, Senate majority whip Dick Durbin, who stopped (far) short of lending his support to the former Nebraska senator. “I think he at least deserves a hearing and an opportunity,” Durbin said.