Democrats earlier appeared confident Hagel would be confirmed in the Senate. | John Shinkle/POLITICO GOP relishes longer Hagel fight

Republicans have gained another 12 days in which to beat up on Chuck Hagel. And even though they may not ultimately stop him from taking over the Pentagon, they relished the opportunity to keep trying.

“The fight goes on,” said conservative editor Bill Kristol, who marshaled opposition research, media buys and op-eds against Hagel. Kristol vowed that he would “continue to work to convince a majority of senators of the undeniable truth that we can do much, much better than Mr. Hagel.”


( Also on POLITICO: Reid sets stage for Hagel showdown)

And one Republican aide promised the long Presidents’ Day recess would represent for Hagel “one more week of additional questions on top of the questions they refuse to answer.”

Just the same, Democrats said they remained confident they would finally make Hagel secretary of Defense when they try again on Feb. 26. In that sense, Thursday’s 58-40 vote to cut off Senate debate was as much an attempt to advance him as Potomac jiu-jitsu by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who moved it up from Friday knowing it would fail in a bid to get Republicans on the record blocking him. Sixty votes were needed to move the nomination forward.

Reid and the White House seized the opportunity to slam the GOP for what they called needless obstructionism that might prove dangerous given the appearance that the Defense Department would be headless. Its incumbent boss, Leon Panetta, was set to stay on until Hagel is finally confirmed, the Pentagon confirmed, but Panetta flew home to California on Thursday to help sell the narrative that Republicans were leaving his office in the E-Ring vacant.

( PHOTOS: What they’re saying about Hagel)

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney charged Republicans with putting “political posturing ahead of our nation’s security.”

“A clear majority in the United States Senate supports Senator Hagel’s confirmation, so today’s action runs against both the majority will of the Senate and our nation’s interest,” Carney said. “Allow this war hero an up or down vote, and let our troops have the Secretary of Defense they deserve.”

( Also on POLITICO: McCain 'largely satisfied' on Hagel)

Republicans weren’t buying it – Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn said Reid had moved up the Hagel vote just “to get a story in the newspaper,” and he defended the validity of the sticking points over which Republicans had chosen to make their stand: Hagel’s financial disclosures and the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Republicans said they needed to be confident Hagel hadn’t taken payments from “foreign sources,” and they said the White House owed them more detail about its actions in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attack. Democrats fumed, arguing the issues were unconnected and that Hagel had satisfied the Senate Armed Services Committee’s disclosure requirements, but they could also not muster the 60 votes to break Republicans’ barricade.

The White House attempted to mollify at least two key Republican opponents, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, with a letter that explained that President Barack Obama had called his Libyan counterpart on the day after the attack, but it wasn’t enough.

A Hagel aide predicted before the vote that any delay would only be temporary.

“Senator Hagel is going to be confirmed, if not tomorrow, then when the Senate returns from recess,” the aide said. “We have 66,000 troops in Afghanistan, and we are beginning a critical process of transition where we’ll bring 34,000 more home by February. They need their secretary of Defense in place now and not more political games.”

“It’ll happen,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said after the vote. “I’m concerned about it because I don’t like to see it. It opens a bad precedent, but I think we’ll get over it.”

Still, Republican senators themselves left them ample leeway to continue delaying Hagel’s confirmation once the Senate returned from recess.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who emerged as a chief negotiator for the GOP, said there was no need to rush, but there were also no guarantees.

“Senators have questions that they want answered,” he said. “Now, after the recess, I think, would be sufficient time to give senators the chance to consider their questions and I would vote for cloture because I believe Cabinet members deserve an up-or-down vote.” But Alexander said he could not guarantee a Republican wouldn’t use her or his privilege to object when the Senate tries again.

For his part, McCain said he would support ending debate after the recess.

“I will vote in favor of cloture on the day we get back, and I believe… enough of my colleagues would do the same,” McCain said. He argued that despite his prediction of a future vote in support of ending debate on Hagel’s nomination, it has only been two days since Hagel was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee in a party line vote.

“Ask [Democrats] why they held up [former secretary of Defense nominee] John Tower for three months,” added McCain, referring to Tower’s 1989 rejection by the Senate.

Graham struck a similar tone. “After the break, we can have a cloture vote, and I feel pretty comfortable I’d vote to move on — unless there’s some bombshell,” said Graham.

Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, who has been herding the nomination through the Senate, was frustrated with the Republican position.

“There’s a suggestion there be a delay of eight days for something where people know how they’re going to vote now?” he said. The U.S. needs a new secretary of defense as soon as possible, Levin said.“[Panetta] wants to go home. He says he’s going home… You need somebody who is locked into the issues, not someone whose mind is on a walnut farm [in California].”

But the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jim Inhofe, did not follow Graham and McCain’s lead. He declined to predict what might happen.

“I’m not talking about anything in the future,” he said.