Barring some unpredictable event, Robert Gates will be confirmed as our new Sec. of Defense. His hearing is on C-SPAN2 right-now, if you are interested.
I actually support his confirmation. I could go into all the reasons why, but it really comes down the fact that he has a record as DCI, and as President of Texas A&M, of competence. If he can protect our soldiers better, if he can get the Pentagon budget under control, great. I don’t have high hopes for Gates. I don’t expect he will be forthright and honest about the reality in Iraq and Afghanistan. But I’m just relieved that Bush has finally nominated someone that looks qualified for the job. As for the Iran-Contra stuff? Even Lawrence Walsh, the investigator of Iran-Contra, says that he supports Gates. Gates should have been fired from the CIA, not promoted to its head. The Republicans have a tendency to reward loyalty over ethics. But we are not likely to get a better nominee than Gates. And he is qualified. And he has done a good job when given the chance to run large organizations. So, unless something comes up in the hearings, I am not going to make a fuss about this particular appointment.
Update [2006-12-5 12:58:2 by BooMan]: Hearing is now on C-SPAN3
Update [2006-12-5 17:35:27 by BooMan]: Armed Services voted for Gates 21-0
Well I am watching the hearings and will be all day, so I will try to post something from time to time if I have anything to add. I too think he is the right man for the job.
Looks like they will try to get this done today according to Warner.
thanks Diane, I like your observations so I’m looking forward to some live blogging.
As soon as I wrote that comment, I was summoned to do some other duties and just got back, I managed just some peeks at the hearing…
From what I did see, I was struck at the amiability of the Senate in their questioning, it does seem as if this confirmation is a foregone conclusion and I am in support of that.
Anyway I will get back to watching, now.
Sorry. I’m tired of permitting retread war criminals run our government.
Gates is one of the architects of Iran-Contra. He belonged in the Hague then, and by the letter of the law he belongs there now.
That legendary Democratic Powder, that is always being kept dry, is just that — a legend.
Hold up.
Gates is not in any way shape or form one of the architects of Iran-Contra. That is not true.
Gates was aware that Ollie North was doing some dubious shit, including playing around with the Iranians and arming the Contras. But he had no part in it. As for his possible perjury, it amounted to a question of whether he honestly forgot receiving a memo in the Summer when he testified he first learned of it in the fall. Hardly a world shattering distinction, since he admitted he knew about it and did nothing.
Get your facts straight.
First of all, Iran-Contra was a NSC program. The CIA’s involvement was tangential, and more one of looking the other way. The key actors were retired CIA or retired military, or detailed to the NSC.
Gates was an analyst by training and the Deputy to Casey, the operations man.
Gates should have been fired for misleading Congress, not promoted, but he didn’t have a major role in Iran-Contra.
Gates has just told Robert Byrd that attacking Iran and/or Syria would be a terrible idea and that he doesn’t support it. He also acknowledged that bin-Laden is a bigger threat than Saddam and always was.
When Bushie-boy finds this out, he’ll be calling for a do-over on the nomination.
It’s just the same as those lying motherfuckers that we put on the supreme court. This week they’ll say whatever they think will get them confirmed; next week and the rest of their lives they’ll say what Bush tells them to.
you’re wrong. He’s a liar, and enabler of criminals who fomented a constitutional crisis. He’s a bagman for authoritarians.
Ray McGovern:
Robert Parry:
Over and over again Bush has promised “moderation” and “bipartisanship”, over and over again the Dems have rolled onto their backs and offered up their soft (very, very soft and pampered) underbellies, and over and over again Bush has continued to pursue on disasterous course after another.
QUIT PROJECTING YOUR HOPES ONTO ANYBODY BUSH NOMINATES.
These people aren’t rational. They aren’t interested in the rule of law, or decency, or positive international relations. They are thugs and authoritarians, and if Bush is comfortable with him, then Gates is one too. Had his terrible record of lying to serve his masters, and one can only conclude that he should be opposed, vigorously.
Of course, the fucking Vichy Dems won’t.
You are forcing me to lay out my reasoning.
In the end, it’s not worth it right now to block his nomination. It’s a matter of picking our battles. We’ll do better by working with Gates and trying to get back to pre-Rummy relations.
oh, so yet another battle not worth fighting? Another functionary for fascists who isn’t worth opposing?
His crimes are old, he wasn’t punished for them, so what the hell, lets just pretend they never happened.
When, exactly, IS it worth fighting?
Oh, and why the rush? Here is a man being handed a job that has a HUGE impact on the world. He’ll be managing a gigantic, and growing, budget. He’ll be responsible for getting people killed … yet our “representatives” are going to just clap him on the back and give him the keys? He can’t even start the job until January. Why the rush?
Jeez, why have a fucking Congress at all?
that’s your problem.
you have no practicality filter.
Right now we have no Sec Def. We have no Dep. Sec of State. He have no Amb. to the UN. Our job is not to expose the modern Republican Party as a pack of fascists by opposing each and every nomination.
Our job is to get people that reject the neo-con model and that are committed to restoring or salvaging our international relations. Gates is as good as we are gonna get.
Booman, I am totally with you in your line of reasoning. I agree Gates is as good as we are going to get at this time and I feel he is qualified for the job.
Martin, I can see the hostility to all that Madman has. I too have some of this too. When the American ppl have been abused by both parties in DC we tend to not trust anymore…at least that is where I am at in all of this. This whole adm. is not a good one and everything they do and say is not to be trusted. The whole hunky dory kind of shit that is going on now in thsi hearing is not what we want to hear.
Why is it the criminal element is always there to run our affairs, is what I want to know. Look as all that has been done in that regard in the years this adm has been in power. I simply do not trust any of them. It has already been settled and confirmed before the hearing even started. I could tell this by the opening statements by all. and the questions that have been submitted for answering are easy to answer without any direct/redirect questioning..it is as if they already have declared him a shu in and this is just a show for the ppl to say they have seen what it is about. I call them on their cards..and you too for that matter…I am not a sheeple anymore…I do not trust, even before I verify…
and replacing one w/ a criminal won’t fix any of that.
Look, politics is about driving a message about how you think the country should be. It is IMPRACTICAL to offer only the idea of capitulation as a way to press forward. The Dems bleat about how they would do things better. They yammer about how corruption is endemic and needs to be combatted.
How, pray tell, do they become anything like an alternative when they continually refuse to OFFER alternatives?
We’re in this mess b/c they rolled over on Iran/Contra, and they CONTINUE to roll over. Far too many of you cheer them on as they do this, as they continue to fail to do their jobs, always with the argument that this latest outrage isn’t the right fight. Which fight will be … when the Republicans declare martial law or drop nukes on Iran?
Look, be careful when you call people criminals. I suspect by your definition that anyone that served in the CIA, probably ever, is a criminal.
Gates was not indicted and the only thing he stands accused of is fudging his testimony (but not to the point that Walsh though he should be prosecuted for it).
At some point you have to deal with reality. Gates is the first nomination Bush has made to a major national security post in a long time that is actually capable of doing the job. If we were going to shoot him down we’d have to have some reason to believe that his replacement would be better. I really doubt that we will get a better alternative. They might be less tainted, or whatever, but that doesn’t mean they will be qualified.
I am fully aware of Gates record as a high ranking member of Reagan and Bush’s CIA and I know what that means. I know he was a hard liner on Nicaragua and that he worked with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq War. That was the Reagan era. I wish it had never happened, I wish it had been repudiated. But I don’t like wasting my breath.
Gates will be confirmed by a near unanimous vote. And we’ll call it a victory and hope he is more reality-based than his predecessor.
We have other nominations at State to worry about, and I bet you Biden doesn’t put up much of a fight on them either because Rice has no staff right now. Her counselor is resigning, her deputy already did, and she has no UN Ambassador.
Let’s see whether we get neo-cons for those positions are ‘realists’.
from my little bit of my memory from that era of time, this one man was also among others responsible for protecting poppy bush. This is why he and others get what they want and they are to keep their mouths shut as to where the dead bodies are. Please do not disappoint me on the attitudes here and start fighting. I am personally in no mood for this here. The thing I look for is respect and if I give it to you I deserve it back in return and I feel others feel such as I do. NO hard feelings…ok Just accept what ppl say and try to understand.
correct. The entire Iran-Contra cover-up was primarily focused on protecting Bush and keeping him viable for his 1988 run for office. There was never much danger of Reagan being impeached, but Poppy was in real trouble.
Gates was a loyal soldier. So were all the Republicans throughout Washington. But Gates was not part of the plot or planning.
I am not saying that Gates should be a respected member of the national security community. I am only saying that he is from the school of Poppy, not the school of his son. And that is the best we can hope for right now.
Martin, you may very well be right on this; however, this gates is nothing more than a shrill of both bushs’. He is only there because poppy wants him there and not any other reason. Poppy has not been way to far from sons ruling, in my opinion. Just take a look at all the others from poppy’s ruling that are in his son’s ruling of America.
more on Gates:
And another POV:
And links to this overview of Iran-Contra.
Right now we have no Sec Def. We have no Dep. Sec of State. He have no Amb. to the UN. Our job is not to expose the modern Republican Party as a pack of fascists by opposing each and every nomination.
Whoa Nellie.
Yes, it certainly is when the candidates are as bad as Gates, Negroponte, Bolton and Alberto Gonzales etc etc ad naseum.
And because we have alot of vacancies we must fill them post haste? Wow, you’ve just given the blueprint to every bad President, do you think this about the Supreme Court too?
We should have had a new Sec. of Defense YEARS ago but we didn’t because of Bush’s ineptitude. We should have had a Amassador to the UN ages ago but Bush has brought this whole debacle on himself by sliding Bolton in unwanted and temporarily.
And the obligation of the Opposition Party is to oppose when the nominees are found wanting and Gates fits that one hands down. Geez Louise why aren’t the Republicans the ones talking about reaching out across the aisle and proving it by their actions instead of the Dems who need to show the populace the backbone they were handed power to use? The Dems keep capitulating and the R’s are using this time in the lame duck Congress to push their disgusting legislation and bad nominations through yet again.
I’m not into screaming into the wind, nor am I unable to distinguish between Republicans.
Robert Gates does not belong on a list with Bolton, Rumsfeld, and Gonzales. Why? First, his ideological infatuation was with Soviet infiltration and our precious bodily fluids. When asked about Russia today he suddenly became expansive and gave a long-winded and confident answer. He’s a trained Russian analyst, not an expert on terrorism. He’s thinks terrorism is an overblown threat and that real policy is done state-to-state and understands diplomacy and propaganda, which are not served by torturing people or belittling our allies.
Gates is an old school guy and that has its problems, no doubt. But compare him to Tenet that sold Powell a bill of goods, or compare him to Feith, who broke every rule of analysis.
Gates biggest shortcoming was his willingness to advance his career by hyping the Soviet threat, and that is a major reason to question his nomination now. But, at the same time, the Poppy school is all about rolling back the hyped terror threat and getting us back to negotiations over Palestine. They’d much prefer to hype the China threat or something.
I’m all for exposing Gates history so America learns about its own history. But I do not expect the Dems to filibuster Gates. He doesn’t have to take this job, and he will be an improvement over what we have now.
let’s just dissolve the legislature, then. Screw it. Lets lay down so a “better” flunky for the Kleptocracy will put a better package on the looting, the imperialism, the dying.
Screw it. Why have two parties … it’s only in form anyway, a pantomime to give the illusion that this is a democracy.
Really, why bother.
I wonder why you do bother. Your expectations are totally unrealistic. Jesus. The worst DCI ever was James Woolsey (or maybe Porter Goss). He replaced Gates. Gates had a brief tenure, but might very well have been the best DCI we’ve ever had. But that counts for absolutely nothing because he is a run-of-the-mill Establishment Republican. I am tired of Movement Republicans. I’m sorry, but you can’t fix the world in a moment.
You know, Eisenhower was probably our best President since FDR and he had the Dulles Bros. running amok.
I think you have the right motives but you just don’t have a grip on the degree of reactionariness in the system. It’s there. It isn’t going to go away in a snap. Even Vietnam only woke us up briefly before we went back to sleep.
In our DC, Gates is a regular joe. A mensch, even. So it goes.
you can’t change the world at all unless you show you’ll fight. Which they don’t, and won’t.
I bother because someone needs to call bullshit.
Sorry booman but while what you say is true as far as it goes the telling sentence might be that he advanced career by hyping soviet threat..and who’s to say that he didn’t tell bush exactly what he wanted to hear or bush would have never ever nominated him.
He is going to be just another horrible DOD flunkey and will not rock the neo-cons boat in any way…no matter what he says in these hearings.
No one bush picks is going to be anything but a terrible terrible disaster but at least the dems could put up some spirited opposition for shit’s sake if only to be able to say that they did when this nominee turns out to be as bad as Rummy.
Gates is part of a slow motion coup. He’s really a stop-gap measure, a kind of last ditch attempt to rescue Bush from the neo-cons before he gets himself impeached. I’m serious. Gates is not there to push Cheney’s agenda, but to counter it.
It’s funny because I think people are going to be simultaneously surprised and disappointed by the political climate next year. The Dems will probably fail miserably to enact progressive legislation or to be as combative as we would like. On the other hand, the Republicans are going to have to adjust in major ways and change their whole tone. They cannot dictate the terms of debate anymore and you will see them becoming accommadating and actually accepting advice and making concessions.
We’ve been out of power for so long that we’ve forgotten what it is like when the Dems run Congress. It will be frustrating, but the GOP will behave a lot better that we are used to.
Gates will be a major part of that.
Armed Services voted out Gates unanimously 21-0.
I expect he will get a unanimous vote in the full Senate too.
As I said, this is a victory, albeit a small frustrating one.
You know Booman, I really have to hand it to you.
Karl Rove and you both declare victory today over the same horrid nomination.
God help the rest of the world.
The question for Democrats was who would they rather have coming over to the Hill to answer oversight questions.
There was never any possibility that someone who was not a loyal Republican was going to get it. And you know what a loyal Republican is like with Bush.
The question is whether Gates will listen to the generals. If he doesn’t, he’ll be sitting in front of Mr. Levin’s committee quite a bit in the next two years.
Gates said he didnt support the status quo. The generals have more or less said they support the status quo – no more troops needed, no withdrawl needed. Interesting times.
The Generals are publicly saying what the President and the Secretary of Defense want them to say. But what are they saying in private? We don’t know.