Chuck Hagel being vetted for State, Defense

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska, is being considered for either Secretary of Defense or State, Foreign Policy reports.

Hagel currently co-chairs President Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board, an independent group that advises the president on the intelligence community. If nominated, Hagel would be the lone Republican in the Obama administration, as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is expected leave.

The White House and Hagel’s office declined to comment to FP.

Hagel has been critical of the current Republican Party since leaving office in 2008, even backing Democratic Senate candidate Bob Kerrey in this cycle. In 2008, Hagel traveled to Iraq with then-Sen. Obama during the presidential election.

“Now the Republican Party is in the hands of the right, I would say the extreme right, more than ever before,” Hagel told FP in a previous interview. “You've got a Republican Party that is having difficulty facing up to the fact that if you look at what happened during the first 8 years of the century, it was under Republican direction.”

Hagel is currently a professor at Georgetown University, teaching at the Walsh School of Foreign Relations.

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice and Senate Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., have also been named as possible successors to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. However, Rice has been under attack by Republicans in recent weeks for her role in the administration's response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Libya that killed four Americans.