Senate Armed Services Committee delays vote on Hagel

Hope waxes eternal. The Senate Armed Services Committee has delayed a vote on the nomination of Chuck Hagel to be US Secretary of Defense.

A letter to Hagel from 23 Republican senators, obtained by Fox News, expresses concern about fees Hagel may have collected for speaking engagements from various groups. The senators, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Cornyn, argue Hagel did not disclose to the panel which “entities” he has dealt with.

“Your refusal to respond to this reasonable request suggests either a lack of respect for the Senate’s responsibility to advise and consent or that you are for some reason unwilling to allow this financial disclosure to come to light," the letter reads.

The Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said in a written statement Wednesday that he had hoped to hold a vote when the committee met on Thursday for a separate hearing on the deadly attack at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in September.

But Levin said the committee's review of President Obama's nomination has not been completed. He said he would schedule a vote as soon as possible.

Here's betting that Hagel took an awful lot of money from Arab-Muslim states and that's why he doesn't want to disclose it. Hmmm.