Reuters: Quick confirmation seen for Pentagon nominee Gates

[Eugene]

Quick confirmation seen for Pentagon nominee Gates

By Susan Cornwell
Reuters
Monday, December 4, 2006; 3:44 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last time Robert Gates sought U.S. Senate confirmation
to a government post, that of CIA chief, his interrogation lasted three weeks.

This time it may not even take three days, and the Senate could vote to confirm him
as the new secretary of defense by week's end.

Members of both political parties think the 63-year-old Gates will easily win approval
as President George W. Bush's replacement for outgoing Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld,
who was a lightning rod for criticism of the unpopular Iraq war.

The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Gates' nomination, starting on Tuesday,
may go only a day before his name is sent to the full Senate for a vote on Wednesday,
the panel's chairman, Virginia Republican John Warner, predicted.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120400723.html