The man President Obama reportedly has picked to head the Pentagon likely would face only minimal Republican opposition in the Senate.
During a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans on Tuesday, Sen. John McCain of Arizona expressed support for Ashton Carter, should the president nominate Carter this week for defense secretary, as expected.
And with McCain holding significant sway over his party colleagues on defense-related matters, Republicans say they will take McCain’s suggestions under serious consideration.
“Sen. McCain indicated support for him, so obviously that’s a big factor,” said Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota. “It sounds to me like there would be support on our side of the aisle” for Carter.
McCain, who is poised to assume the Senate Armed Services chairmanship once Republicans take control of the chamber in early January, said he is “favorably inclined” to support Carter, who formerly served as the Pentagon’s No. 2.
“I think he’s qualified,” McCain told the Washington Examiner after the meeting. “But we’d want to go through a hearing and the regular process.”
Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, currently the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Republican, also said he would back Carter for Pentagon chief.
“I support it very strongly,” said Inhofe when told that CNN was reporting that Obama has chosen Carter as defense secretary. “I can’t imagine that he’s going to have opposition to his confirmation.”
The Senate unanimously confirmed Carter as deputy defense secretary in September 2011, a position he held until late last year.
Under procedural rules controversially revamped late last year by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., cabinet positions like defense secretary require only a simple majority in the 100-seat Senate. And with the 55-member Democratic caucus currently controlling the chamber, a Carter nomination would be a lock if it occurred this year, as it would be expected.
But even with Republicans taking control of the Senate in early January, it appears Carter — at least for now — would be confirmed without too much trouble, regardless of which party controlled the chamber.
Presidential nominations don’t require House approval.
But McCain added that anyone the president taps for the position will be on a short leash, suggesting it doesn’t matter much who is nominated for the job.
Carter “has to fully understand he [would have] no influence on major national security decisions — they’re all made by a few people in the White House,” McCain said.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., agreed, saying that Republicans are concerned “the president is not really allowing anybody to have any control of the Pentagon.”
“I imagine at the [pending confirmation] hearings we’re going to have questions about what sort of role will the acting secretary of defense play in defense of our nation,” he said.
