Not even being a Republican can protect an Obama nominee from attack by the GOP. Even before the President officially named Nebraska’s former Senator Chuck Hagel on Monday as his nominee for Secretary of Defense, Hagel’s fellow Republicans still serving in the Senate were sharpening their knives.

On Sunday, Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina went on CNN’s “State of the Union” program to state his main objection:

“This is an in-your-face nomination of the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel.”

The objection refers to a comment that Hagel made during an interview in 2006 when he referred to the “Jewish lobby” rather than the Israeli lobby, but he went on to say:

“I’m a United States senator. I’m not an Israeli senator.”