panetta view of defense size and scope. he wants to cut it below. secretary panetta says we are destroying the defense department if we move forward with sequestration. and you are picking someone that the iranians applaud and israel is under scrutiny and in the cross hairs of history like any other time i have seen and we are about to nominate a person for secretary of defense who tells israel you should negotiate directly with hamas? a group of people who tried to kill israeli children every day by lobbing rockets. makes no sense to me. >> shannon: and you have tough concerns and tough questions about the nominees and others probably coming up as well. i know that you are deferensial to the president in many cases when justices sotomayor and kagan were up for nomination you did vote for them. >> i thought they were qualified. >> shannon: when do you draw the line? >> when the signal you are sending to the secretary of defense nominee to the iranians that we are not really serious about stopping your nuclear program and to our allies in