Senate panel postpones vote on Hagel nomination as GOP demands more info

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

WASHINGTON – A Senate committee has postponed a vote on former Sen. Chuck Hagel's nomination to be defense secretary after Republicans accused him of withholding financial disclosure information from his time in the Senate.

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.

Hagel, a former two-term Republican senator from Nebraska, has faced strong opposition from his ex-GOP colleagues, who have questioned his past statements and votes on Israel, Iran and nuclear weapons. It was unclear whether the delay in the vote would derail the nomination or merely postpone action on Obama's choice to replace Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

In their letter to Hagel, Republicans complained that he failed to answer several questions, including details on all compensation of more than $5,000 that he had received over the past five years. They also had pressed him on his recent speeches, the groups he has addressed and their donors.

Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who opposes Hagel's nomination, had complained to his colleagues about the information the nominee provided during a closed meeting on Tuesday. Other Republicans raised objections to a vote.

"I'm not going to make any decision on Sen. Hagel until we get all the information we've requested," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told a small group of reporters Wednesday. "I don't think we should be voting."

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Unanswered questions.