By Ben Werschkul, Mac William Bishop, Erica Berenstein and Pedro Rafael Rosado
J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press
A Look at the Hagel Confirmation Saga: The Times's Jeremy W. Peters examines Chuck Hagel's nomination for defense secretary.
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as defense secretary on Tuesday after he survived a bruising struggle with Republicans. At the same time, President Obama's nominee to be Treasury secretary moved closer to approval with bipartisan support, suggesting that the Republican blockade against the administration's second-term nominees was beginning to ease.
After escaping a filibuster from members of his own party, Mr. Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, prevailed in a 58-to-41 vote — the smallest margin for a defense secretary since the position was created in 1947, according to Senate records. Fifty-two Democrats, two independents and four Republicans backed Mr. Hagel, and 41 Republicans opposed him.
The narrow victory raised questions about whether Mr. Hagel would arrive at the Pentagon as a diminished leader as it faces deep budget cuts that are set to take effect on Friday.
Hours before the final vote on Mr. Hagel, the Senate Finance Committee approved the nomination of Jacob J. Lew as Treasury secretary on a 19-to-5 vote. Attention is now turning to the coming vote by the Senate Intelligence Committee on the president's nominee as C.I.A. director, John O. Brennan.
The chances for Mr. Brennan remained good, though his confirmation was not expected to be entirely smooth, as both Republicans and Democrats have raised objections over the agency's use of drones to kill American citizens suspected of terrorism. Republicans also see the Brennan vote, like the fight over Mr. Hagel, as leverage to press other issues with the White House.
Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, said on Tuesday that he favored a longer confirmation process to force the White House to disclose more about the drone program. "There's an old saw that after somebody is confirmed, they don't even owe you a holiday card," he said. "This is the time for vigilant oversight."
Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, has called for similar disclosures on drones and has threatened to use "every procedural option at my disposal" to hold back Mr. Brennan's nomination.
Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans, have threatened to delay the nomination over another issue altogether: the attack last year on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Both men made similar demands for information during the confirmation of Mr. Hagel, who, unlike Mr. Brennan, has had no role in formulating the Obama administration's defense and national security policies.
Even if these efforts serve only to inconvenience the White House and cause the president and his nominees some mild political damage, Republicans say they are satisfied that they are forcing the confirmation process to be more deliberative.
"Probably the best-known power of the United States Senate is advise and consent," said Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee. "Movies have been made about it, books have been written about it. It's what we do. And we'd be derelict in our duty if we didn't examine the qualification of our president's cabinet."
But Democrats said the process, particularly with Mr. Hagel, had hardly been reflective, let alone worthy of the Senate.
Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, allowed that her Republican colleagues were entitled to ask questions. "But I understand that Jack Lew had 638 questions that he had to answer from one senator," she said. "Now, really? If you don't want the guy or gal, vote against them. But don't drag it out. That's not politics, that's petulance."
Republicans in the Senate, joined by an array of conservative activists, waged an all-out campaign to discredit Mr. Hagel, digging into his financial records for evidence that he was paid by anti-American groups and scouring his old speeches for signs that he was hostile to Israel. Those efforts produced little, forcing Republicans to acquiesce after filibustering his nomination in an initial vote this month.
Thom Shanker and Jada F. Smith contributed reporting.
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