In a more boring and predictable world, Chuck Hagel would be one step closer to the Pentagon today. After last week’s debacle in front of the Armed Services Committee, Hagel was given a week to provide the texts of speeches he’d given since leaving the Senate and proof of any “financial remuneration” he’d taken from foreign interests. On Wednesday morning, 24-odd hours before the committee would vote to recommend the nomination, Hagel shrugged—the speeches were off-the-cuff, the financial info didn’t belong to him.