Obama to Nominate Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary This Week, Senate Vows to Fight: White House Daily Update - Sunday

While Republicans are settling in for a long fight over sequestration and the debt ceiling, President Obama has more immediate concerns, like filling several cabinet positions amid opposition from Senate Republicans.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leaving the State Department soon, and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts will step in to replace her, after Susan Rice was given a thumbs down by the Senate before she was even nominated.

But does that victory embolden Republicans in the next battle over a cabinet position? Or has Obama had enough with kowtowing to pressure from the other side of the aisle? Or both?

A source close to the White House confirmed to the Washington Post that the president will nominate former Republican Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense sometime this week. The nomination will likely happen on Monday, though scheduling issues could push it to Tuesday.

Hagel would replace Leon Panetta, who is stepping down.

But Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and other Senate Republicans signaled that they're willing to fight out the nomination, over what they consider to be lackluster support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and weak commitment to Israel's security on Hagel's part.

But those are the very reasons Obama wants Hagel in the position. Though Hagel initially voted to authorize both wars, he later began to question their goals and usefulness.

Hagel has also been critical of the influence pro-Israel lobbying groups have on the military and strategic objectives of the United States.

Of course, he's not very diplomatic when expressing his concerns, and he's run afoul of both Jewish groups and supporters of gay rights. In 1998, Hagel opposed a Clinton ambassadorial nomination simply because the candidate was too gay for Hagel's tastes.

Hagel's position as a moderate will make it harder for Obama to rally the Democratic base around his nomination, but it may play well among independents and moderate Republicans, who could view Senate opposition as continued obstinacy simply for the sake of spite.

In addition, Obama needs to find a replacement for Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, who plans to step down sometime after the inauguration, though that will probably be current White House chief of staff Jack Lew.