The idea of former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska succeeding Leon Panetta at the Pentagon is, as the fictional king of Siam once put it, a puzzlement. Friends of Israel are up in arms at the prospect, but Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times thinks he’s just the sort of contrarian element the Obama White House requires. Meanwhile, former Rep. Barney Frank still resents Hagel’s bigoted opposition to a gay diplomatic appointee. So the fight is on.

I tend to believe that presidents are entitled, within reason and with considerable latitude, to populate their cabinets with whomever they want. But senior political appointments—whether to the cabinet, sub-cabinet, Supreme Court, or the diplomatic corps—are no longer pro forma, if they ever were; and not so long ago (1989) a Democratic Senate rejected the veteran Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (John Tower) when President George H.W. Bush appointed him to be secretary of defense. Nothing is sacred.