McConnell not ruling out Hagel filibuster, says opposition to nominee ‘intensifying’

[TwilightGardener]

9. I watched almost all of it on CSPAN, having been home that day.

I heard that pundits on MSNBC and elsewhere were repeating the same "unprepared" "hesitant" "fumbling" talking points within the first couple hours of testimony. 5 hours left to go, they had already decided what happened at the hearing. Kind of almost...coordinated. But since it's a subjective assessment, it's hard to argue with, isn't it? No mistakes or bad statements on the record to reject him, just a "sense" that he was unprepared? Had he tried to defend himself more forcefully (had they even let him) it would have been all about his combativeness or hair-trigger temper, of course.

That exchange between Lee and Hagel in the article you posted was more representative of what I saw--rational and correct answers being given. He said the right things to get confirmed, over and over again, because Hagel certainly knows how Senate confirmations work--play it safe, avoid mistakes, say what you need to say to overcome opposition to you.