AOL / AP: No household name, Ashton Carter has earned his stripes in the national security trenches the quiet way. For decades he has toiled as a defense thinker and strategist, nuclear expert, three-time Pentagon executive, budget guru and academician…
Obama spokesman Josh Earnest stopped short of confirming that the president had made a decision, yet praised Carter effusively for serving “very, very ably” at the Pentagon previously and noted he had been easily confirmed by the Senate before.
“This is an indication that he fulfills some of the criteria that we’ve discussed in the past,” Earnest said. “He is somebody who definitely deserves and has demonstrated strong bipartisan support for his previous service in government.”..
Carter would likely face a welcoming Senate confirmation hearing, unlike Hagel. As the nominee in February 2013 Hagel was hammered with sometimes sharp questioning that seemed to throw him off balance and raise doubts about his competence. Carter, however, would be tackling a pile of security problems at least as high as those Hagel took on, beginning with the further development of a strategy to degrade and eventually defeat the Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq… (more)
