Even if Hagel cracks the 60-vote threshold, the GOP will have sent a message. | REUTERS Senators threaten Hagel filibuster

Some Senate Republicans are prepared to filibuster Chuck Hagel’s nomination to become the next secretary of defense, a rare maneuver to block a Cabinet-level nominee that demonstrates the lingering hostility from GOP senators toward a man who used to serve with them.

Hagel, a former Nebraska GOP senator for a dozen years, still appears likely to eventually garner the votes for Senate confirmation when Republican opponents force Democrats to jump through procedural hoops to move toward a final vote.


( Also on POLITICO: Reid 'confident' GOP won't filibuster Hagel)

But the filibuster threat — reiterated Monday by Sen. Jim Inhofe, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee — would make Hagel just the third Cabinet nominee in history to require 60 votes to overcome a filibuster on the Senate floor. The other two nominees were President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 choice to head his Commerce Department, C. William Verity, and President George W. Bush’s 2006 choice of Dirk Kempthorne to be secretary of the interior.

Even if Hagel cracks the 60-vote threshold, the GOP will have sent a message to President Barack Obama: Nobody gets a free pass on confirmations.

Never before has a defense secretary nominee required 60 votes on the floor to overcome a filibuster threat, the closest being Bush’s 2006 pick to be an assistant secretary of defense, Peter Flory, according to the Senate’s historical office.

“Yes, I will,” Inhofe said when asked by POLITICO whether he would filibuster Hagel’s nomination, adding that he didn’t know that the move would be a first.

Of course, it’s still possible that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) cut a deal and a Hagel filibuster is avoided — or that Inhofe, or another GOP senator, backs down from their threats.

But the filibuster warnings are the latest twist in a rocky confirmation process that would be likely to weaken the new defense secretary’s relationship with Congress at a key time for the Pentagon. They come after Hagel has endured blistering attacks from Republicans on past statements and positions — on Iran, Israel, Iraq and nuclear arms control — and after a shaky confirmation hearing failed to quell GOP concerns. Republicans have demanded more information on the source of his income after he left office, which Democrats have called unfair.

The criticism started even before Hagel was nominated, and the unusual months-long confirmation battle has been fought with campaign-style media buys, opposition research and op-ed columns. On Tuesday, Republicans are prepared to cede a tactical defeat, letting Hagel pass through the Armed Services Committee on what’s expected to be a partisan vote.

But that doesn’t mean Hagel’s GOP foes, many of whom are his former Senate friends, are giving up the fight.

On Monday, Inhofe made clear his threat to require 60 votes for Hagel to win confirmation, a precedent-setting move certain to be replicated by future Senates.

“Sen. Inhofe is prepared to take necessary measures to ensure there is a 60-vote threshold,” Inhofe spokeswoman Donelle Harder said.

That threat has been echoed by other Senate Republicans, like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has publicly warned that he’ll place a hold on Hagel’s nomination until the Obama administration provides a more detailed accounting of last year’s deadly attacks in Benghazi.

Another Republican committee member, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, was expected to announce her opposition on Tuesday, an aide confirmed.

Filibustering would force Reid to file cloture motions — which require several days and 60 votes — in order to move toward a final vote to confirm Hagel’s nomination by 51 votes. Reid said Monday he wants to move to a final vote on Hagel’s nomination by Wednesday or Thursday.

“Mr. President, there’s never in the history of the country ever been a filibuster on a defense secretary nominee, and I’m confident there won’t be on this one,” Reid said Monday afternoon.

Hagel does have one unlikely GOP defender: Arizona Sen. John McCain, who tore into Hagel with withering criticism during his confirmation hearings but has said he won’t filibuster his nomination, even if he ultimately opposes his confirmation.

McCain said that a filibuster, if it were to occur, “sets a wrong precedent. Someday we will have a Republican president. Someday we may even have a majority in the United States Senate.”

Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) told POLITICO Monday that Republicans have the right to filibuster, though he opposed their decision to do so.

“There are enough Republicans who have said they’re not going to filibuster a Cabinet nominee that I think we can get by the filibuster,” Levin said in an interview. “I don’t think it’s a good precedent to filibuster a Cabinet officer.”

And some top Republicans weren’t too concerned about the precedent if the GOP makes good on its promise.

“Any senator can do that, so it’s really irrelevant,” said Minority Whip John Cornyn of Texas.

“What’s not a trivial matter is Sen. Hagel has refused to provide the kind of information that has been requested in the past and has been demanded by even our Democratic friends.”

If Republicans do carry through with their filibuster threats, they appear to have little chance of succeeding.

If the 60-vote threshold to proceed to a vote is reached — which seems likely based on current opposition to the filibuster by McCain and other influential Republicans — it would require a simple majority of 51 votes for Hagel to finally end the bruising confirmation process and begin his job at the Pentagon.

Democrats have 55 votes in the Senate, and two Republicans — Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Mike Johanns of Nebraska — have indicated that they would support Hagel. If all Democrats vote for Hagel, he would need three more votes from Republicans to break a filibuster. Those appear likely to come from moderates and conservatives, such as Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Orrin Hatch of Utah among others.

Johanns earlier told POLITICO he thought Hagel would get the votes he needs whether or not Republicans use a filibuster.

McCain also came to Hagel’s defense Monday — sort of — saying he thought Hagel should get a committee vote and move ahead.

“I believe it is appropriate for the Armed Services Committee to vote on Senator Hagel’s nomination and determine whether to move this nomination to the Senate floor, where members can debate and express their own judgments on Senator Hagel,” he said.

McCain also alluded to another tactical defeat for Republicans on Monday — the end of their previous push for Hagel to disclose more of his financial records.

But McCain did not say whether he would vote for Hagel, and his statement slammed Hagel’s Jan. 31 confirmation hearing, which he said was “discouraging and disappointing, and his often adversarial attitude toward legitimate questions from committee members was troubling.”

Republicans’ decision to opt for trench warfare against Hagel is a major break from his predecessors, almost all of whom arrived in the Senate with little controversy and been confirmed easily both by the committee and the full chamber. But Hagel discovered he had powerful enemies who began to marshal opposition against him weeks before Obama even formally confirmed he wanted the former senator for the job.

If he is confirmed, he’ll take the reins at the Pentagon with as much or more congressional opposition as any defense secretary in history, including from someone who traditionally is the Pentagon’s biggest Hill advocate: chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Although California Rep. Buck McKeon doesn’t get a vote, he said on the day of Hagel’s confirmation hearing that he was so unimpressed that he wanted Obama to pick someone else.

“In confusing and contradictory testimony, he created more concerns than he allayed,” McKeon said. “His refusal to shut the door on further defense cuts put him at stark odds with the current defense secretary and military leaders. It pains me to reach this conclusion given Senator Hagel’s service in the armed forces and in the Senate. … It is my opinion that Senator Hagel is unfit for the job of secretary of defense.”