Your first statement on that subject that I wholeheartedly agree on.

I can completely understand that he is trying to circumvent the House on partisan issues (e.g. welfare, health care, etc) and avoiding compromises on his key agenda points.

But if he is unable to create consent on a deeply hawk'ish issue such as defense, then there is something seriously wrong - either with the president or with the proposal. Considering that there he is still part of an active political process - even across party lines (e.g. fiscal cliff) - the problem is not with the president - but apparently with the proposal.

He can't even get his (Republican) SecDef candidate confirmed. I'm sorry, I know that in the frictionless intellectual void that is message board arguments, it makes sense that Obama should be able to get bipartisan consent for defense measures, but in the real world that simply isn't so.

The controversy on Hagel's nomination has very little to do with his party line. Instead his questionable views on Israel are making him a choice that is difficult to sell - both to Republicans as well as Democrats.

Not saying that Hagel is such an outliner, but it is easy to nominate a fringe candidate of the other party and then pointing fingers when his own party does not support his views. Of cause something as sneaky as that would be unimaginable in real-world politics, and I am probably just watching too much House of Cards.