Air Force general withdraws nomination to head Pacific Command

Earlier in the day, during Martin's confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., suggested the general had something to hide after the Pentagon bungled the committee's request to review some of Martin's internal e-mails associated with a controversial Air Force plan to acquire Boeing KC-767 tankers.

McCain, Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., and ranking member Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., are in the process of poring over thousands of internal Pentagon and White House e-mails associated with the multibillion dollar Boeing contract.

Last week the Justice Department began probing e-mails between two high-ranking government officials directly involved in the troubled tanker acquisition.

At the hearing, McCain questioned why the Air Force failed to provide the specified e-mails.

"We tried to get as a priority Gen. Martin's e-mails because of the urgency of this nomination. We haven't gotten it," McCain said. "Obviously, there is something going on about non-responsive e-mails."