WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama picked a Republican congressmen to be the next secretary of the Army today, bringing another member of the opposition into his administration’s fold.
Obama said New York Rep. John McHugh is “committed to keeping America’s Army the best trained the best equipped, the best land force the world has ever seen.”
McHugh will make sure the country’s troops can handle the new kinds of combat in the 21st century, including nonconventional warfare, the president said.
McHugh has represented upstate New York in Congress since 1993, and is the top Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee.
“The Army’s always had a special place in my heart,” said McHugh, who has also served as co-chair of the House of Representatives Army Caucus and member of the Board of Visitors of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
In Congress, McHugh has devoted himself to protecting and expanding Fort Drum in northern New York, home of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division.
In recent years, Fort Drum has grown as its soldiers face long deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, but McHugh and other New York politicians have fought to keep Washington from shutting it down as a cost-saving measure.
McHugh and then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton even went so far as to write a letter of protest to a fictional character on the television show “The West Wing” after an episode suggested closing the base.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said he would “work to ensure a swift and smooth confirmation for my good friend.”
“Two words that characterize John McHugh are class and service, and in this new job he will once again be able to use both,” Schumer said in a statement.
Since taking office, Obama has said he wanted to include Republicans in his administration.
If confirmed, McHugh will join Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a holdover from George W. Bush’s Republican administration, at the Pentagon. Obama also selected former Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois as transportation secretary.
Obama tried to get another Republican into the administration, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg. Obama nominated Gregg for commerce secretary. But a week after his nomination, Gregg withdrew, citing “irresolvable conflicts” with the Democratic president.
If confirmed, McHugh’s appointment would set off a special election for the House seat he’s held for nine terms. Democrats held on to a conservative district in the state earlier this year after Kristen Gillibrand was appointed to the Senate to fill Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s vacant seat.
The current Army secretary, Pete Geren, was appointed to the post in 2007 after his predecessor was forced to resign in the wake of the revelations about poor outpatient treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
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