WASHINGTON The rough road facing former Sen. Chuck Hagel to confirmation should he be nominated to be secretary of defense was made clear Sunday as conservatives denounced his anticipated selection and painted the Vietnam veteran as out of step with mainstream foreign policy views.

The New York Times, the Associated Press and other news outlets, quoting unnamed administration sources, said Hagel will be nominated Monday.

Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina predicted that Hagel would be “the most antagonistic secretary of defense toward the state of Israel in our nation’s history” and called his expected nomination by President Barack Obama an “in-your-face nomination.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, while promising that Hagel would get a “fair hearing,” said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would get “tough questions” in a confirmation process.

Hagel, although a Republican, is viewed with suspicion by many in his party for past comments he has made calling on Israel to negotiate with Palestinians and for his opposition to some sanctions aimed at Iran. Since his possible nomination was floated late last year, he has come under fierce attack by conservatives.

He also has been criticized on the left for a remark he made in 1998 calling a Clinton administration ambassadorial nominee “openly, aggressively gay.”

Hagel recently apologized for the comment, pledging his support for lesbian and gay military families.

The dissent does not appear to have dissuaded Obama from selecting Hagel to succeed Leon Panetta.

Wounded in Vietnam

Hagel is a former two-term senator from Nebraska and an Army veteran who was awarded two Purple Hearts for wounds received in Vietnam. In the Senate, he initially voted to give the George W. Bush administration authority to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he later harshly criticized the conduct of both wars, irritating fellow Republicans and making him popular with Democrats critical of those wars.

Critics have pounced on his calls for direct negotiations with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that the U.S. and Israel refuse to deal with directly, and his votes against some Iran sanctions.

Hagel rankled many with comments he made in a 2006 interview with former State Department Mideast peace negotiator Aaron David Miller in which he said that the “Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people” in Congress.

‘Out of the mainstream’

“Quite frankly, Chuck Hagel is out of the mainstream of thinking I believe on most issues regarding foreign policy,” Graham said on CNN. “This an in-your-face nomination by the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel.”

Supporters say Hagel showed his support for Israel by voting repeatedly to provide it with military aid and by calling for a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians that should not include any compromise regarding Israel’s Jewish identity.

They note that he also supported three major Iran sanctions bills: the Iran Missile Proliferation Sanctions Act of 1998, the Iran Nonproliferation Act of 2000 and the Iran Freedom Support Act of 2006.