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Despite the remarkable outpouring of protests, however, the fix for Gates was in, thanks to then-chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, David Boren, D-Oklahoma, and his staff director, George Tenet, who cut off lines of inquiries and rounded up the votes.
Still, the issue of politicization and doubts about Gates's honesty led 31 senators to vote against Gates on the Senate floor. Never before had a CIA director nominee received nearly as many nays.
Fall and Rise
After Bill Clinton entered the White House in 1993, he replaced Gates, who retreated to the Pacific Northwest to write his memoir and then look for work. Again, the Bush Family intervened to help, assisting Gates in landing jobs at Texas A&M, where he rose to be the school's president.
However, Gates with his Eagle Scout demeanor remained a favorite with much of the Washington Establishment -- and he was heartily welcomed back in 2006 when he arrived to work on the blue-ribbon Iraq Study Group.
Before the panel's work was done, though, President George W. Bush decided to dump Rumsfeld, who was going wobbly on the Iraq War. Bush asked Gates to take over at the Pentagon. [For details, see Consortiumnews.com's "Rumsfeld's Mysterious Resignation."]
In the brief Senate hearing on the Gates nomination, the troubling Iran-Contra history -- and the politicization of CIA intelligence -- were happily forgotten.
At the Washington Post, columnist David Ignatius rewrote the narrative of Gates's meteoric rise at the CIA, explaining it as a case of worthy meritocracy, that Gates simply "was the brightest Soviet analyst in the [CIA] shop, so Casey soon appointed him deputy director overseeing his fellow analysts."
Gates wasn't; and Casey had something other than analytical expertise in mind.
Now, the savvy Gates appears to have made a new calculation, that it is the right time to join the rats leaving the sinking ship of the Iraq and Afghan war policies.
As I've noted, Gates is not dumb. In his mind, there's no dishonor in doing what he must to preserve and even enhance his reputation as a Washington Establishment savant.
Still, his appeal to the West Point cadets about "duty, honor, country" was a little much for this former Army officer. Gates noted that 80 young West Point cadets had fallen in battle since 9/11 -- and surely some in his audience will join them.
They will come back lifeless in what the Pentagon now calls "transfer cases" from the feckless wars that Gates only now tells us should qualify any supporter for a visit to the local shrink.
And, if the Boston Globe editorial is any harbinger, Gates may have calculated another smart move. He may have greased the skids for his slide into wise-man-dom. I can visualize a new chapter in Gates's second memoir, "How I Issued MacArthur-Type Warnings All Along."
Were I the parent of Casey Sheehan or one of the nearly 6,000 other U.S. soldiers killed in Bush's two wars, well, I cannot imagine how I could control my anger.
And my outrage would be heightened at hearing Gates "protest too much" as he finished his "Farewell Address" Friday at West Point:
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