For good or ill, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin is going to have a difficult time on his road to confirmation as the next secretary of defense. This has less to do with Austin’s qualifications for the job than it does with Austin’s status as a former general and what it would mean for the coveted civil-military relationship were Austin to be at the top of the Pentagon ladder. Even Democrats normally willing to give President-elect Joe Biden unflinching support are questioning whether tapping Austin for defense secretary is the right decision. Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that “the burden of proof is on the administration” to explain why America needs another military man to head the Pentagon.

Austin’s nomination is receiving significant pushback from all corners of the Democratic Party. Many are upset that Michele Flournoy, the former undersecretary of defense for policy in the Obama administration and one-time favorite, was passed over to be the first female secretary of defense in U.S. history. Biden recognizes he has work to do, which is why he quickly penned an op-ed in the Atlantic defending Austin as a man of principle who will clean up the Pentagon after four years of chaos under President Trump. Austin, Biden said in remarks today, is “the definition of duty, honor, country.”