The Senate Armed Services Committee has delayed its vote on whether to recommend former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) to the Senate for confirmation as Secretary of Defense. No new date for the vote has yet been given.

Rumors of a postponement had been circulating all day. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), who chairs the committee and had previously indicated that a vote could take place Thursday, told Politico’s Manu Raju this afternoon, “The committee’s review of the nomination is not yet complete.

Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is not providing the Senate any more information about past speeches or funders. Luckily, a few of his former audiences are only too proud to share his remarks with the world.

The National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations recently published a recording of a speech Hagel gave to its conference in 2007. In addition to calling for unconditional talks with the Iranian regime, Hagel said that the U.S. had to “reverse optics” in its relationship with Israel in order to restore its credibility as an honest broker between Israelis and Palestinians, and to boost its diplomacy in the Middle East more generally.

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