Obama picks another scribbler in Hagel

Is bad penmanship a prerequisite for President Obama’s second-term Cabinet?

Newly minted Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed off on a letter to a former Senate colleague this week with a scrawly, nearly illegible version of his signature. We’re pretty sure it’s his signature, at least, but we arrived at that only by deduction, based on its placement.

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(For The Post) - A letter from Chuck Hagel to Sen. Barbara Boxer.

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At least this time around nominees haven’t had to withdraw.

It appears he’s giving Treasury Secretary Jack Lew a run for his money.

Lew, whose John Hancock will grace every dollar bill being issued, was roundly mocked (including by the Loop) for his loopy signature.

Here’s a letter Hagel wrote to Sen. Barbara Boxer (he apparently wrote an identical one to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in response to a letter the two sent him, but only Boxer posted hers on her Web site).

Hagel added two friendly flourishes to the typewritten missive. In a slash of blue ink, he crossed out the formal address “Dear Senator Boxer” and replaced that with “Barbara.” That part we could read.

But his sign-off was nearly impossible to decipher. A strangely formed “C” starts the affair, which breaks down into a strange mountain range in the middle and ends with a spastic-looking shape that one could only vaguely recognize as a “k.” Could be, he was matching the informal tone of the opening by signing the note “Chuck.”

Or not. Others who’ve looked at it thought it was his full signature. Other guesses included “eskimo,” and one conspiracy-minded viewer read “CIA is OK.” What say you, Loop fans?

Hagel doesn’t have to sign all the dollar bills the way Lew does. But still, he has to put his pen to paper on occasion. Perhaps Obama should add a handwriting lesson to the next Cabinet meeting?

Present company . . .

The grilled-shrimp appetizer had just arrived at the 128th annual press-and-pols Gridiron Club dinner Saturday night when NAACP President Benjamin Jealous fell into conversation with a fellow white-tied dinner guest about the Supreme Court’s recent argument over the Voting Rights Act.

The distinguished-looking gentleman told Jealous he thought that NAACP Legal Defense Fund lawyer Debo P. Adegbile had done a fine job arguing that the law needed to be continued.

Sure, but, Jealous wondered aloud, what happened to the solicitor general? He was just awful.

Well, I am the solicitor general, replied Donald Verrilli Jr.

An apparently mortified Jealous apologized profusely and excused himself from the table for what seemed to folks like an awfully long time, returning just about when the famous Gridiron petits fours arrived with coffee.

Jealous resumed apologizing on his return.

We heard this story from two separate witnesses who overheard every word of the only-in-Washington conversation. Jealous, however, doesn’t remember it that way. “It didn’t happen,” an NAACP spokesman tells the Loop.

Either way, there’s a moral to the story: In Washington, always know who you’re speaking to. (And who’s within earshot.)

Baby steps

Reporters at the State Department — and around the world — are awaiting the first televised briefing from new spokeswoman Jen Psaki .