John McCain Denies Delaying Hagel Nomination Over Letter Formatting

WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain's office denied Thursday that he used the formatting on a letter from the White House as an excuse to delay a vote on Chuck Hagel's nomination for secretary of defense.

"That's absolutely false," McCain's spokesperson Brian Rogers said of the charge, which Democrats had been quietly making on Capitol Hill Thursday.

McCain and Sens. Lindsay Graham and Kelly Ayotte wrote a letter to the White House on Tuesday demanding further information about the September attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, and warned that they would hold a vote on Hagel's nomination pending a response. The White House responded Wednesday — but addressed the letter to Sen. Carl Levin, chair of the Armed Services Committee, and merely CC'ed McCain, Graham and Ayotte.

The White House resent the letter — nearly identical to the first, but for the inverted subject and CC lines — Thursday.

<snip>

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rebeccaberg/john-mccains-office-denies-delaying-hagel-nomination-over-le