Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) has a speech ready to go today at the Brookings Institution (11 a.m.) that is very significant — and is focused on the Middle East crisis and on the question of American engagement in the world.

OK — Something interesting is going on with Lincoln Chafee. He just shoved John Bolton all over the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing Room floor. Must have had spinach and Wheaties this morning.

On “The Young Turks” Radio Show, Senator Dick Durbin says the Bolton bilibuster needs only one more vote to succeed. Frankly, this is better than I thought we had, and we have until mid-September to wrangle that vote.

Senator Norm Coleman just asked John Bolton that now after he has been inside the UN whether his views of the institution and its role have changed at all. John Bolton’s response: “Not really.” On that basis alone, Senator George Voinovich should flip his vote again.

I’ve just heard — and read — the

Something weird just happened. I received the first formal “opening statement” of John Bolton just before the hearings began and quickly read it. I highlighted in my last post what I saw as the most shocking part of his statement and reported it.

I am covering the John Bolton hearings from 216 Hart Senate Office Building. Senator Lugar has just called the hearing to order and opened proceedings. So far, the Senators in attendance are Barbara Boxer, Richard Lugar, John Warner, George Allen, Chris Dodd, George Voinovich and Norm Coleman.

Here are some very useful resources regarding the John Bolton confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. First of all, The Washington Note will be there. Second, for others who want to be there — the hearing will be taking place in 216 Hart Senate Office Building (a big room)….

On Thursday, 20 July (last week), former National Security Advisor and one of America’s top strategic thinkers, Zbigniew Brzezinksi, spoke at a public policy dinner salon that my colleagues and I at the New Amerca Foundation organized. Brzezinski’s presentation and responses to questions were riveting.

There have been several thousand UN observers stationed in Lebanon for 28 years. Their role was not peacekeeping — but they have been at least an institutional “toe in the door” in Lebanon and the neighborhood around Israel. Today, at least two UN observers were killed in a strike by Israel.