The president is expected to announce the nomination of Chuck Hagel, left, on Monday. Obama to pick Hagel for Pentagon

President Barack Obama has settled on Chuck Hagel, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Nebraska, to succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, with an announcement expected Monday, Democratic officials told POLITICO.

The choice of Hagel, who opposed his party on the Iraq War as a senator, is likely to ignite a raucous confirmation battle because several Democratic interest groups and prominent Republicans have voiced strong opposition since Hagel’s vetting for the job was reported five weeks ago.


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A Democratic aide described the White House’s logic for choosing Hagel, age 66: “Chuck Hagel is a decorated war hero who would be the first enlisted soldier and Vietnam veteran to go on to serve as secretary of defense. He had the courage to break with his party during the Iraq War, and would help bring the war in Afghanistan to an end while building the military we need for the future.

“He has been a champion for troops, veterans and military families through his service at the VA and USO, and his leadership on behalf of the post-9/11 GI Bill. The president knows him well, has traveled with him to Iraq and Afghanistan, trusts him and believes he represents the proud tradition of a strong, bipartisan foreign policy in the United States.”

Obama, who arrived back in Washington on Sunday morning, is expected to announce his nomination of Hagel on Monday as his first public appearance after the continuation of his Hawaii vacation.

Within a few days, and perhaps at the same time as the Hagel announcement, the president is likely to name his successor for former CIA Director David Petraeus. The candidates are John Brennan, White House homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, or Mike Morrell, acting CIA director.

( PHOTOS: Chuck Hagel's career)

Neoconservative Republicans have rallied against Hagel. More damaging in the Democratic-controlled Senate, pro-Israel groups and gay-rights groups have marshaled opposition to him.

A Senate Democratic official said: “I don’t think Dems just fall in line. Ultimately, he may be confirmed. But at this stage, his fate is totally up in the air. He will really have to work hard to overcome some of his previous statements and positions.”

In 1998, Hagel disparaged James C. Hormel as “openly aggressively gay,” after President Bill Clinton named him ambassador to Luxembourg.

( Also on POLITICO: Graham calls Hagel an 'in-your-face' pick)

On Dec. 21, Hagel issued a strong apology for the quote, which had appeared in the Omaha World-Herald: “My comments 14 years ago in 1998 were insensitive. They do not reflect my views or the totality of my public record, and I apologize to Ambassador Hormel and any LGBT Americans who may question my commitment to their civil rights. I am fully supportive of ‘open service’ and committed to LGBT military families.”

The Human Rights Campaign accepted his apology. The gay rights organization’s president, Chad Griffin, said Hagel’s statement “of support for LGBT equality is appreciated and shows just how far as a country we have come when a conservative former senator from Nebraska can have a change of heart on LGBT issues.”

Hagel’s past comments also have stirred anger among some in the Jewish community and other Israel backers.

Advocates for Israel have a variety of policy disagreements with Hagel, but one of their biggest concerns may be his frank and unflattering public assessments of their work and role in Washington.

“The political reality is … that the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here,” Hagel told former Mideast peace negotiator Aaron David Miller in a 2006 interview. “I have always argued against some of the dumb things they do because I don’t think it’s in the interest of Israel. I just don’t think it’s smart for Israel.”

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch said Hagel would be “a terrible appointment” in an interview published with the Algemeiner, a website covering Jewish and Israel news.

“Such an appointment would give great comfort to the Arab world that would think that President Obama is seeking to put space between Israel and his administration,” Koch said.

Some of the the best-known voices in pro-Israel circles in Washington have also criticized Hagel, but it’s unclear whether that wave of pre-emptive criticism will spread to the Jewish community more generally. And as the criticism developed, several former officials rallied to Hagel’s side, including former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft and former Sens. David Boren (D-Okla.) and Nancy Kassebaum-Baker (R-Kan.).

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman wrote on Christmas Day that Hagel is a staunch defender of Israel who has been smeared “as an Israel-hater at best and an anti-Semite at worst.”

“If ever Israel needed a U.S. defense secretary who was committed to Israel’s survival, as Hagel has repeatedly stated — but who was convinced that ensuring that survival didn’t mean having America go along with Israel’s self-destructive drift into settling the West Bank and obviating a two-state solution — it is now,” Friedman wrote.

In an interview that aired Dec. 30 on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama told David Gregory that nothing had come out about Hagel that appeared disqualifying: “My No. 1 criteria will be who’s going to do the best job in helping to secure America. … I’ve served with Chuck Hagel. I know him. He is a patriot. He is somebody who has done extraordinary work both in the United States Senate, somebody who served this country with valor in Vietnam. And is somebody who’s currently serving on my intelligence advisory board and doing an outstanding job. … With respect to the [gay] comment, … he apologized for it. And I think it’s a testimony to what has been a positive change over the last decade in terms of people’s attitudes about gays and lesbians serving our country.”

The two other known possibilities for the Pentagon post were Michèle Flournoy, who was under secretary of defense for Policy during Obama’s first two years, and Ashton Carter, the current deputy secretary of defense.

For Senate Republicans, the idea that one of their own would be playing on Obama’s team doesn’t seem to matter much, even though many of them have welcomed Sen. John Kerry’s pending promotion to the Cabinet.

Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn, the incoming minority whip, echoed many conservative commentators in telling POLITICO before the nomination was official that he had concerns with Hagel’s voting record and past statements on issues including Iran, Israel and Hamas, “just to name a few.”

“As important as secretary of state is, I think secretary of defense should meet a higher standard,” Cornyn said in comparing his support for Obama’s choice of Kerry to run Foggy Bottom with his opposition to Hagel.

Cornyn said that Hagel’s views supporting negotiations with Iran and his comments about Israel’s clout in Washington “disqualify him for such an important job where America needs to lead and not just follow.”

Several other Senate Republicans had initially welcomed the rumors of Hagel’s appointment, but many have since expressed reservations.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the new ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, first told POLITICO that he “would look forward to supporting” Hagel as defense secretary. Based on what he knew of the former Republican senator from Nebraska, he said he’d vote to confirm him.

But a day later, Inhofe told a different POLITICO reporter he was “not real happy” with some of Hagel’s past statements about Israel and recalled his former colleague as being “curt” in some of their interactions.

Another prominent Armed Services Committee member, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said Hagel was “completely wrong about Iraq and some of things he said about Iran were very disturbing, but it’s hard to say he’s not qualified for the job if the president has confidence in him.”

On Sunday, Graham blasted Obama’s choice of Hagel.

Hagel would be “the most antagonistic secretary of defense toward the state of Israel in our nation’s history,” Graham told CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“He has long severed his ties with the Republican Party,” Graham said. “This is an in-your-face nomination by the president. And it looks like the second term of Barack Obama is going to be an in-your-face term.”

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.