Rummy's Replacement: Is Gates as next Sec. of Def. A Done Deal?

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Poll question: Rummy's Replacement: Is Gates as next Sec. of Def. A Done Deal?

1. Is Gates' confirmation a done deal, like Alito and Roberts were, only to be complained about afterward when it's Too Late?


2. Is Gates' nomination an outrage that people need to know and CONTACT CONGRESS Dems to tell them to block it?


3 a. Ya mean Bill Gates?
- b. Iran Contra is old news dude....


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Gates segment 12-4-06 on Lehrer NewsHour: http://www.pbs.org/newshour


Active threads on Gates

General Discussion forum

Know your BFEE: Robert Gates did more than keep the doors open at BCCI
Topic started by Octafish on Nov-27-06 10:11 AM (90 replies)


Salon: Docs Link Robert Gates To Trafficking Of Cooked Intelligence
Topic started by kpete on Dec-03-06 08:21 PM (9 replies)


Was Gates tapped because of his Contra experience in Nicaragua?
Topic started by BurtWorm on Dec-01-06 01:04 PM (1 replies)


Robert Gates - and locking us up forever.
Topic started by shance on Dec-01-06 03:12 PM (5 replies)



Editorials & Other Articles forum

Bob Gates & Locking You Up Forever - By Robert Parry
Topic started by LSK on Dec-01-06 02:24 PM (3 replies)


Ray McGovern: Robert Gates is Just Rumsfeld lite; Hadley - just lite.
Topic started by marmar on Nov-30-06 02:18 PM (2 replies)


Gates Warns Against Leaving Iraq 'in Chaos'
Topic started by cal04 on Nov-28-06 10:14 PM (3 replies)


NEW SECDEF GATES ASSUMES ‘THE WEIGHT’ (TAKE A LOAD OFF RUMMY)
Topic started by Don Davis on Nov-13-06 05:46 AM (0 replies)

In Gates Selection, White House Hopes to Close Rift Between
Topic started by spindrifter on Nov-11-06 08:04 PM (12 replies)


An Open Letter to Carl Levin: No Free Pass to Gates (Ray McGovern)
Topic started by laststeamtrain on Nov-11-06 04:46 PM (1 replies)


The Cheney-Gates Cabal (Ray McGovern)
Topic started by laststeamtrain on Nov-10-06 10:33 AM (8 replies)


Understanding Gates (James Mann in WaPo)
Topic started by laststeamtrain on Nov-10-06 08:19 AM (1 replies)


The Robert Gates File
Topic started by RedEarth on Nov-09-06 06:48 PM (0 replies)

Old Names, Old Scandals: Robert Gates was a controversial figure in the Iran-contra affair
Topic started by struggle4progress on Nov-08-06 10:43 PM (6 replies)


The Secret World of Robert Gates (Robert Parry)
Topic started by laststeamtrain on Nov-09-06 01:07 PM (2 replies)


Robert Gates and Iran/Contra (Lawrence E. Walsh)
Topic started by laststeamtrain on Nov-09-06 08:13 AM (8 replies)


Gates’ CIA Past Could Haunt Him in Confirmation Hearings/Good Read!
Topic started by KoKo01 on Nov-09-06 10:59 AM (3 replies)


Fred Kaplan's take on Gates
Topic started by Boohooey on Nov-08-06 06:25 PM (3 replies)


Gates....He's Back!.....Commentary by Larry Johnson
Topic started by KoKo01 on Nov-08-06 05:03 PM (3 replies)


Current Texas Monthly profile of Robert Gates...
Topic started by shrdlu on Nov-08-06 11:42 AM (2 replies)



General Discussion: Politics forum

Reuters: Quick confirmation seen for Pentagon nominee Gates
Topic started by Eugene on Dec-04-06 06:34 PM (0 replies)

If you were a U.S. Senator... What Would You Ask Robert Gates (at his hearing)?
Topic started by Up2Late on Nov-30-06 07:40 PM (2 replies)


Robert Gates Promoted and Financed Osama Bin Laden
Topic started by Flabbergasted on Nov-27-06 08:22 PM (8 replies)


Defense Secretary Nominee Gates Advocated Bombing Nicaragua
Topic started by MN Against Bush on Nov-25-06 02:18 PM (1 replies)


AP: Dems unlikely to block Gates nomination
Topic started by Eugene on Nov-21-06 05:09 PM (3 replies)


Gates' hit list:
Topic started by rodeodance on Nov-17-06 04:49 PM (3 replies)
Last modified by PurityOfEssence on Nov-17-06 10:19 PM


Latest Breaking News forum

LAT: Defense nominee Robert Gates' business ties raise concerns
Topic started by DeepModem Mom on Dec-02-06 12:41 AM (2 replies)


Defense nominee (Robert Gates) criticizes Iraq planning
Topic started by sabra on Nov-29-06 08:20 AM (4 replies)


Gates Advocated Air Strikes on Nicaragua
Topic started by DoYouEverWonder on Nov-24-06 06:21 PM (10 replies)



Political Videos forum
Schwarzkopf & SecDef Gates on not going into Baghdad in 91...
Topic started by bridgit on Nov-13-06 04:18 AM (6 replies)

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1. Toll Free Contacts for Congress

Toll-free Capitol Hill Switchboard numbers
1 877 851 - 6437
1 877 762 8762
1 800 828 0498

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2. An Open Letter to Carl Levin: No Free Pass to Gates (Ray McGovern)

An Open Letter to Carl Levin: No Free Pass to Gates
By Ray McGovern
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Saturday 11 November 2006

Dear Senator Levin:

The humiliation you felt was palpable when, as the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, you were unceremoniously diddled by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputies Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, chief architects of the fiasco in Iraq. They all but thumbed their noses at you, and you often complained about their "lack of candor." In two short months, you will chair Armed Services and will no longer have to tolerate such behavior. Indeed, you can start practicing now by not letting the nomination of Robert Gates be a "slam dunk."
One need not be politically astute to see that the White House is again using its cat's paw Senator, patrician gentleman from Virginia John Warner, who now chairs the committee, to force through the nomination of Gates this year, while the lame-duck Republicans still hold the majority. That, of course, is par for the course. What is far more disturbing is press reporting that you intend to acquiesce in that maneuver. You don't have to do that any more.

I am having a hard time believing that you would give Gates a pass, since I have so much admired your courage in the past. But I fear that the many recent years in minority exile may have dulled your edge and that you have gotten too used to unsavory compromises. I have in mind the deal you worked out with South Carolina Republican senator Lindsay Graham curtailing some of the rights of "detainees." Not to mention your sudden cave-in, in the aftermath of 9/11, on funding for the National Missile Defense program, which you earlier recognized as obscenely expensive, of unproven reliability, and of dubious utility given the changing nature of the threats to our security.

A lot is riding on whether you step up to the plate on the Gates nomination. Your decision will be one of the earliest tangible signs of whether the November 7 election has injected some spine into Democrats - whether they still have it in them to act like winners. You have had a running dispute with the Bush administration over the way its representatives have misrepresented so much on Iraq in testimony before your committee. If you bow to Republican pressure to allow the Gates nomination to sail through without a thorough investigation of his record, you will be giving a fresh nihil obstat to the practice of no-fault dissembling before Congress.

<more>
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/111106A.shtml

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