WASHINGTON — Republican senators held fire Wednesday, opting against using Ashton Carter's defense secretary confirmation hearing to publicly hammer President Obama's policies.
In the run-up to the former deputy defense secretary's appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican senators and insiders predicted Obama's national security and foreign policy decisions would be in the spotlight more so than the nominee.
But a very different scene played out for around five hours in the ornate Dirksen Office Building hearing room.
SASC member and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi told reporters the difference in tone of Wednesday's hearing from that of Carter's would-be predecessor, current Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was "night and day."
When asked during a break in the hearing by CongressWatch during a break in the hearing why Republican SASC members were not asking Carter to explain Obama's policies, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, until last month the panel's top GOP member, replied: "Oh, do you think that's fair?"
"Here's a guy who really has the background and the knowledge," said Inhofe, who until last month was the panel's top GOP member. "And he's going into the job and the first thing you ask him is how bad is … his situation and ask him to respond favorably to it. I think people have so much respect for him as a person that they really didn't want to do things [like] that."
There were few partisan attacks on the White House, and only one minor dust-up with Republicans.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate, pushed Carter hard on the administration's Syria policy.
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When the nominee's answer failed to satisfy SASC Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., he told Carter his reply didn't come close to addressing Graham's line of questioning.
"He articulated goals, not policy," McCain said, turning his ire at the president. "There is no policy. So I couldn't expect him to articulate one."
But that exchange passed without any fireworks or discernible ill will.
"I told him he didn't articulate a policy, but I didn't see any reason to beat it," McCain later told reporters. "I can't expect him to give an answer because there isn't one. Because there's no strategy."
Wicker and other senators believe Carter's nomination will sail through committee and then the full Senate.
McCain told reporters he intends to require answers to additional questions in writing, which he wants back next Monday.
If those answers appease the chairman, he said the committee would vote early next week on the nomination.
The Senate is slated to be on recess Feb. 16-20, and McCain's goal is for Carter to be confirmed by the full chamber by the end of next week.
If confirmed, Carter told the panel he expects to be "confronting some of the most difficult threats to our national security that we've faced in some time."
While Republicans did not engineer the kind of assault that GOP and Democratic defense sources said left Hagel politically damaged, McCain mused that whomever leads the Pentagon under Obama won't have much say in tackling those "difficult threats."
"I'm confident that he has no influence whatsoever," McCain told reporters Wednesday morning, saying West Wing figures like national security adviser Susan Rice dominate all defense and foreign policy decisions.
email: jbennett@defensenews.com
Twitter:@bennettjohnt
