CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: His problem isn't a paper trail; his problem is a demonstrated, incredibly remarkable lack of competence. Look, the two lines of attack on him up until today were one, ideological, the content of what he's been saying over the years is out of the mainstream way out there, to the left of Obama. As McCain pointed out, he's a guy who got the surge completely wrong and he himself called the Iraq war a disaster and he voted to authorize the war. The first line on attack was on the content, the second one is on how honest is he because he's been denying essentially the essence of a dozen statements and ideas that he said in the past. And now, he says all of the sudden, 'Oh no, you know, on Iran, I changed my mind.'
All of the sudden, you know, he has seen the light on a dozen issues, overnight, as he's being challenged in Congress. But what happened today was shocking, because it showed an astonishing lack of competence. I mean, he was wobbly, he was weak, bumbling. As we saw in the first clip, he didn't, when he said, when he corrects himself, on containment and says, you know, well, I was wrong about supporting containment, our policy is that we don't have a policy on containment, it showed he's no idea about the single most grave issue facing the United States. Containment of Iran or not, and he was corrected by a Democrat. And then on the Israel issue, he was completely humiliated by Senator Graham when he was asked you said the Jewish lobby. (Special Report, January 31, 2013)
◼ Snort: Senators reportedly in ‘shock’ over Hagel’s ineptitude, bumbling
Several senators- even undecideds-tell me there's a ton of buzz on senate floor about hagel's lackluster performance. "Shock" is the word
— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) January 31, 2013
