Both Rick Perry and Ryan Zinke were scheduled for confirmation votes today by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Last night the committee abruptly announced that the votes had been postponed indefinitely. No one is saying why.

I suspect that there are two parts to the answer. First, there is the squishy, want-to-be-adored-by-the-smart-set chair, Lisa Murkowski. Second, Ron Wyden and Bernie Sanders are on the committee. Both of them have decided the confirmation hearings are a perfect time to raise money and their political profile.

The odds of this being something more substantive than Murkowski losing control of her committee to the Democrats is fairly slim. Neither of these were looked at as tough confirmation votes and the chances that these two, in particular, had some suddenly discovered flaw is remote.