American Politics Today

The Senate approved Chuck Hagel's nomination for Defense secretary Tuesday, ending a contentious battle that exposed deep divisions over the president's Pentagon pick.  After Republicans blocked the nomination earlier this month, they ultimately allowed for an up-or-down vote on Tuesday. The margin was historically close, with 58 senators supporting him and 41 opposing in the end.  Though Hagel is himself a former Republican senator, the resistance to his nomination showed an unusual level of distrust among many senators toward the man chosen to lead the Defense Department -- at a time when the country is trying to wind down the Afghanistan war, while assessing emerging threats from Iran, Syria and elsewhere in the turbulent Middle East and North Africa.  Republicans had earlier held up the nomination largely over demands for more information from the Obama administration on the Sept. 11 Libya attacks.  But they also raised serious and recurring concerns a...

New Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel Addresses Pentagon Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel can now start moving in. We’re hearing the new crew he’s expected to keep close includes Marcel J. Lettre, who had been outgoing Secretary Leon Panetta’s deputy chief of staff and is now acting chief of staff to the new SecDef. Word is that he’ll get the “acting” removed very shortly. Also, Aaron Dowd, a former Hagel Senate staffer and his top aide at Georgetown University/Atlantic Council, is roaming the Pentagon these days and will likely get a staff job in the E-Ring. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/chuck-hagel-sworn-secretary-defense-addresses-pentagon-18607994

S Boosts Aid to Syrian Opposition, Rebel Fighters

Would a Latino running mate help Romney, Republicans? At the Council on Foreign relations this week, Sen. Marco Rubio talked tough on the international hotspot of the day, Syria. "It's time to act now. I don't want to score political points on this issue, I want to see it resolved," Rubio told Time Magazine's Rick Stengel, the event's moderator. Rubio says he doesn't want to score political points, but like it or not -- every move he makes these days is viewed through one prism: a potential vice presidential pick for Mitt Romney. For many Republicans, Rubio is prime running mate material -- a fresh-faced, telegenic tea party favorite from Florida, a key battleground state. And he is, of course, Hispanic -- a fast-growing ethnic group in the United States, a group Democrats dominated in presidential elections over the past four decades. The impact of the 'Latino vote' beyond Texas Battle for the Latino vote ...

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   Rudy Giuliani And The Price Of Milk While running for president in 2007, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told a reporter at a Montgomery, Ala., supermarket that he estimates "a gallon of milk is probably about a $1.50, a loaf of bread about a $1.25, $1.30, last time I bought one." It must have been a few election cycles since his last trip: The grocery store's website listed  Fullscreen  4 of 12    Play All Spiro Agnew And Poor Neighborhoods Republican vice presidential candidate Spiro Agnew, branded as Richard Nixon's go-to guy on cities, vowed in 1968 to avoid poor neighborhoods. "If you've seen one slum, you've seen them all," Agnew said.