Report: Obama Looks to Maverick Republican Senators to Fill Out Hypothetical Cabinet

(Fox News) - Barack Obama is looking past this week’s Democratic primaries and to a strategy to strip John McCain of traditional support by appointing McCain allies to a potential Obama Cabinet, London’s Sunday Times reports.

Eyeing some of the GOP’s most independently minded senators, Obama is considering Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Richard Lugar of Illinois as possible secretaries of defense and state, respectively, senior advisers told the newspaper.

Asked about his Cabinet choices last week, Obama told The Sunday Times: “Chuck Hagel is a great friend of mine and I respect him very much.” He did not go into further detail.

But speaking in Dallas, Texas, Obama noted his bipartisan approach to filling out a would-be Cabinet.

“I think America deserves the best person for every job and so we are going to be canvassing far and wide if I am fortunate enough to be elected,” he said.

Skeptics say it would be unlikely Hagel would demonstrate support for Obama in a general election, as McCain is one of his oldest friends in the Senate.