Gay Republicans Take Out Ad Criticizing Hagel

Attacks potential defense secretary nominee over comments on gay rights as well as positions on Iran and Israel

The White House may not be making any more announcements about President Obama's new national security team this week, but that hasn't stopped the anti-Chuck Hagel drumbeat.

An organization of gay Republicans took out a full page ad in The New York Times on Thursday proclaiming the former Nebraska senator — who has been on Mr. Obama's short list for defense secretary — as "wrong on gay rights." The ad also labeled Mr. Hagel as "wrong on Iran" and "wrong on Israel," but the focus of the ad was on Mr. Hagel's words, made more than a decade ago, on gays.

In an interview in 1998 about James C. Hormel, a San Francisco philanthropist nominated by President Bill Clinton to be ambassador to Luxembourg, Mr. Hagel spoke out against the appointment, saying that an "openly, aggressively gay" man should not represent the United States.