Sen. Ted Cruz slammed the White House on Tuesday for a "failure of leadership" as President Barack Obama prepares to nominate his administration's fourth defense secretary.

The Texas Republican, who is considering a 2016 run in hopes of heading his own White House administration, called the unusually high turnover at the helm of the Defense Department emblematic of a White House that puts politics above U.S. national security.

"It seems what the administration is looking for is a defense secretary who will follow the orders of a political White House rather than focus on defending the national security interests of this country," Cruz said. "At a time when the threats are this grave, we shouldn't see turnover at the Defense Department than one has at a typical Burger King."

Cruz said he did not know Ashton Carter, the former No. 2 man at the Pentagon who is expected to be Obama's nominee to succeed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, but Cruz said he looks forward to learning more about Carter and his "good reputation."

But Cruz emphasized he was unsettled to see several potential picks pull their names out of the running to head the department, including former Pentagon official Michele Flournoy and Sen. Jack Reed.

"It says something that so many people are saying, 'No, thank you, I don't want to serve in an administration that overrides the Defense Department, that treats the defense secretary as subservient to political lackeys in the White House," Cruz said.

Cruz made the remarks Tuesday at an event cosponsored by Concerned Veterans of America and the conservative publication The Weekly Standard during which he bore out his hawkish foreign policy and staked out positions starkly in contrast to Obama. What are the answers to this following set of questions: 1. How many Secretaries of Defense has the President already nominated during this term?
Answer: 1. three

Problem: (CNN) -- Oscar-winning actress Celeste Holm died at her home in New York on Sunday at the age of 95, her niece, Amy Phillips, confirmed.

Holm, a star of the Broadway stage and movies, was admitted to New York's Roosevelt Hospital a week ago, but her husband took her home to her Manhattan home on Friday, Phillips said.

"She passed peacefully in her home in her own bed with her husband and friends and family nearby," she said.

Holm won the best supporting actress Academy Award for "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1947. She was nominated for the same honor in 1949 for "Come to the Stable" and 1950 for "All about Eve," according to the Academy database.

Holm's stage career began in 1936 in a Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, stock company, which led to an understudy role in a touring production of "Hamlet" with Leslie Howard, according to her official biography.

Her Broadway debut in "The Time of Your Life" in 1939 was a small part, but it brought her to the attention of New York critics. Four years later, she was cast as Ado Annie in the smash "Oklahoma!" because of her ability to "sing bad," the biography said.

She signed a long-term contract with 20th Century Fox that began her film career in 1945, after she toured Europe entertaining troops with the USO. Her first Fox movie was "Three Little Girls in Blue" in 1946, a supporting role that earned her star billing for the musical "Carnival in Costa Rica" in 1947.
1. Who died?
2. Who was she?
3. How old was she?
4. Is she survived by her husband?
5. Where did he take her in her last days?
6. From where?
7. When she got her first Academy Award?
8. In what category?
9. Was she active in stage too?
10. When did that start?
11. Where?
12. What was the name of the production?
13. Who was one of her coworkers there?
14. From where we learned this?
15. Was she in Broadway too?
16. When that started?
17. In which play?
18. How was it received by the critics?
19. For film who did she sign up with?
20. What was her first film with them?
Answer: 1. Celeste Holm
2. a star of the Broadway stage and movies
3. ninety-five
4. Yes
5. Home
6. Roosevelt Hospital
7. 1947
8. best supporting actress
9. Yes
10. 1936
11. Deer Lake, Pennsylvania
12. Hamlet
13. Leslie Howard
14. her official biography
15. Yes
16. 1939
17. "The Time of Your Life"
18. it brought her to their attention
19. 20th Century Fox
20. "Three Little Girls in Blue"

question: CHAPTER XXIX

"Guess I'll have to wash my hands of him," Collins told Johnny. "I know Del Mar must have been right when he said he was the limit, but I can't get a clue to it."

This followed upon a fight between Michael and Collins. Michael, more morose than ever, had become even crusty-tempered, and, scarcely with provocation at all, had attacked the man he hated, failing, as ever, to put his teeth into him, and receiving, in turn, a couple of smashing kicks under his jaw.

"He's like a gold-mine all right all right," Collins meditated, "but I'm hanged if I can crack it, and he's getting grouchier every day. Look at him. What'd he want to jump me for? I wasn't rough with him. He's piling up a sour-ball that'll make him fight a policeman some day."

A few minutes later, one of his patrons, a tow-headed young man who was boarding and rehearsing three performing leopards at Cedarwild, was asking Collins for the loan of an Airedale.

"I've only got one left now," he explained, "and I ain't safe without two."

"What's happened to the other one?" the master-trainer queried.

"Alphonso--that's the big buck leopard--got nasty this morning and settled his hash. I had to put him out of his misery. He was gutted like a horse in the bull-ring. But he saved me all right. If it hadn't been for him I'd have got a mauling. Alphonso gets these bad streaks just about every so often. That's the second dog he's killed for me."
1. What did Collins say he had to do?
2. Who did Collins say it to?
3. Who did he say was right?
4. What did he say he was like?
5. Who fought?
6. Who fought a guy he didn't like?
7. Was Collins rough with him?
8. How do they describe his customer?
9. Where was he performing?
10. How many does he have leftover?
****
answer:
1. Wash his hands of him.
2. Johnny.
3. Del Mar.
4. A gold-mine.
5. Michael and Collins.
6. Michael.
7. No.
8. As a tow-headed young man.
9. Cedarwild
10. One.