CNN

(CNN) - Sen. Joseph Biden said he would reach out to his colleagues on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if he had to pick a Republican as his running mate.

"At the risk of hurting his reputation - and it will hurt him - but I would pick Chuck Hagel," Biden said. "And I'd consider asking Dick Lugar to be secretary of state."

Hagel, of Nebraska, is an outspoken Republican critic of the war in Iraq and a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee. Lugar, of Indiana, is the committee's ranking Republican and served as chairman before Biden took over in January.

Hagel joined Senate Democrats last week in supporting a call for the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq by next spring. Lugar has called on the Bush administration to change its strategy in the four-year-old war, but has opposed legislation that would set a date for withdrawal.

The question was submitted by YouTube user Saheed Badmus, of Brentwood, Maryland.

– CNN News Editor Matt Smith