Advice and Consent

President Obama and his Senate supporters have every right to disregard the "advice" of Senate Republicans that Chuck Hagel is unqualified to be Sectretary of Defense, but all senators should unite to defend the "consent" part of their role in presidential appointments.

It is hard to avoid this conclusion about the Hagel nomination (tip to Instapundit):

Let’s recap. The president doesn’t care about an inept nominee. The Democrats don’t care about an inept nominee. But Republicans are supposed to defer to the White House’s judgment? This is, frankly, nuts.

Despite my initial concession that great deference should be paid even to the poor choice of Hagel as Secretary of Defense, Hagel's awful performance in his Senate hearings should be enough to move on to a new candidate.

With the media more interested in other issues, it is up to the Republicans in the Senate to stop this nominee by denying consent.