CNN: Gates was confirmed Unanimously...Just Now Breaking.

[KoKo]

Unanimously. I hope our Dems know what they are doing....

[woodsprite]

1. I thought Biden said there was no way he was gonna be confirmed. nt

[H2O Man]

9. Biden said

there was no way Bolton would be confirmed.

[pinto]

11. Thanks for the clarification.

[pinto]

10. (?) Biden's not on the committee and it goes to the floor now. I'd guess it's a done deal.

[blm]

35. I think that was about Bolton - they KNEW Gates would get through....

from what I've gleaned, Gates has been quietly promising withdrawal from Iraq to Dems supporting withdrawal. If that is his only focus for the rest of the term, than so be it - some of us are pretty sure the Saudis are telling the BFEE that withdrawal HAS to happen - but have troops close enough to jump in if the House of Saud becomes the target.

[symbolman]

2. okay

NOW this concerns me.. surely these guys are all old enough to remember IRAN/CONTRA and the fact that this guy is a LYING FUCK..

Have we traded bone headed thieves for SHREWD CRIMINALS?

What the hell are they doing?

[twilight_sailing]

6. Strange days indeed.

[bluerum]

14. The republicks still own the floor. Bide your time till January. nt

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

27. You really need to ask that?

[DancingBear]

30. They are being today's Democratic Party

Seriously, is anyone surprised?

Raising the minimum wage is easy, acting as if you are more than superficially different from those you "oppose" is something all together different.

Of course they remember Iran/Contra - the question that must be asked is DO THEY CARE?

This is the first of many answers - draw your own conclusions.

[Hippo_Tron]

40. The answer is that they don't care, Iran-Contra was 20 years ago

Gates and basically everyone else involved in it got off. We can't hold it against them because they were never prosecuted.

[DancingBear]

48. That's an interesting response

Is there a statute of limitations in place? If there is, I must have missed it.

If so, and if Condi decides she likes shopping better than pretending to care, can we look forward to Ollie North as Secretary Of State?

I mean, it WAS 20 years ago, And he DID get off.

I can't believe someone on a "progressive" message board would reply as you did, but after watching this place over the last six months nothing surprises me anymore.

[cal04]

3. top of CNN:Senate Committee unanimously Approves Nomination

Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously approves confirmation of Robert Gates as Defense Secretary, sending nomination to full Senate.

http://www.cnn.com/

NYTimes
Senate Committee Approves Nomination of Robert M. Gates as Defense Secretary

http://www.nytimes.com/

[Karenina]

23. THAT Robert Gates???

:eyes:

[Octafish]

28. Who's side are they on?

Unanimous. Maybe he isn't a traitor. They just act like one.

[Karenina]

29. Certainly NOT the one

we're on...

[Tom Joad]

4. The dems know they are confirming a man who should have spent a good

part of his life in prison for his part in the Iran-Contra affair.
Do crimes. Get promoted.
Gates is Scum.

[EFerrari]

16. Who is left? What kind of work can we find for Ollie?

This isn't going down well with the Latino community at all. Nearly everyone I know from Nicaragua or El Salvador lost someone because of these bastards.

[Hippo_Tron]

39. The time to deal with Iran-Contra was 20 years ago

We can't hold Iran-Contra against Gates because he was never prosecuted along with the rest of the gang.

[Flubadubya]

5. I guess it's "anything but Rummy"...

LOL! At least this way, if he turns out to be a royal screw-up (like Rummy), they can say, "Well we were all duped."

It's that "accountability" thing, you know. :eyes:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. Politics as usual.

Just because the guy has blood on his hands isn't reason enough to keep him from office. It's not like something serious like he was looking at naughty pictures or had gravy stains on his tie.

[WI_DEM]

8. That was quick, I thought they would have more questions

Aren't confirmation hearings usually longer and include witnesses, both pro and con?

[KittyWampus]

21. that's what i'm wondering. Did the Dems at least draw blood?

this makes me feel ill.

[KharmaTrain]

34. Getting Gates To Admit "We're Losing" Was Not A Bad Shot

A couple thoughts to those all hopping up and down here.

First...getting Rummy out of DOD is now fait accompli...holding up an appointee would just leave the status quo and another day with von Rumsfeld still at the helm is one dark day for us all.

Second...I doubt there would be any candidate this regime would nominate that would pass a DU smell test. He's not going to nominate John Murtha or even a Repugnican who dares to say this invasion was a mistake. If it's not Gates, it'll be another hack...and it will be until that regime is finally replaced. We deal with the best of the worst and hope to keep them in a box.

Third...Gates comes in to a divided and demoralized Department. He'll be putting out more fires than he'll be lighting as he'll have the difficult job of breaching the reality of this regime's gross negligence, the products of that negligence on the ground and attempting to get any cooperation from Crashcart and Numbnutz. I don't envy the dirty work that lies ahead for this guy or anyone who would be nominated.

Let's see how much latitude Gates has to influence things. With oversight coming in January, Gates will be back regularly in front of this panel and he won't get the kid gloves treatment from Levin like Rummy did under Warner.

:hi:

[Hippo_Tron]

43. Agree with you 100% DU wouldn't approve of anyone Bush nominates

I don't like anyone in the Bush administration but there's a precedent going back to Andrew Jackson and even before that the President appoints people that agree with him ideologically.

[ShaneGR]

12. Well, considering what he said today, it's a big difference from Rummy...

He admitted we aren't winning.

He said all options are on the table.

He said he was willing to listen to all points of view and work with differing viewpoints.

[radfringe]

22. and from the sound of it

the neocons are having a meltdown...

Snowjob was trying to reconcile Gates saying we are losing in Iraq with bush's smiley-face we are winning statements. Snowjob tried to say it's a case of two people with different definitions of the the same issue, so therefore Gates and bush are both on the same page... :eyes:

[Danieljay]

32. and was he under oath? nt

[KoKo]

13. Levin gave a statement supporting and Warner said his Confirmation

was Seconded by Robert Byrd.

They should have held off until January. Maybe the rumor that getting rid of Rummy for the only replacement Chimp would accept is true.

:shrug: There have been so many different views on this it's hard to know if a "deal was cut" or not.

[Az]

15. Good and bad

Good in that they are playing strategically. Making a stink over this guy would gain us little political ground. It would scare away voters and lower our chances in the next election. Strategically speaking there is nothing to gain here.

The bad is that this has become the basis of politics for the Dems. Its no longer about doing what is right. It is about doing what is politically expedient. You don't champion new ideas by not sticking up for what you believe to be right.

I don't think an absolute in either direction is necissary. Letting Gates go through is not likely to cause us many problems. In fact he may be an enemy of our enemy in that he is an enemy of the NeoCons. So I wouldn't raise a stink about this. But I do hope that when something that does carry more weight with progressive ideals comes to the floor that may be politically messy we will see some stand up for it.

[KoKo]

18. True. It was the Lame Duck Repugs who are responsible if Gates screws

up like Rummy and thousands more die. It's Bush and the Repugs Humpty Dumpty they broke. If Humpty was only an "egg" in this case and not American Economy and Thousands of Lives in a Country that we never should have invaded.

Still....there are other was our Dems can deal with this if they want to be more agressive....like cutting off funding for the War.

[lapfog_1]

17. Dems know what they are doing...

Iraq is a disaster that can't be fixed. Period.

There is only one commander in chief, and his legacy will be Iraq, not Gates, not Rummy.

There is only one way that the Democrats can stop our participation in the war, and that's to de-fund the DOD, and that would be a huge mistake (though maybe the right thing to do).

Between now, when it is widely known that the war is "lost", and when our last advisors and trainers leave, there will be some thousands of causalities, and the blame for those needs to be squarely put where it belongs... at the bloody feet of GWB.

I wish there were some other answer.

And there was a reason that Rummy got "fired" and Gates was nominated right after the election... so they could hold the hearings and take the vote now, not 4 weeks from now.

[partylessinOhio]

19. Dog and pony show is over. Move on now, there is nothing to see.

Gates' hearing was just for the benefit of the dumb voters. The Senate knows what's best for the country. Don't get in their way! Just move it!
:sarcasm:

Vote: 21 to 0 in closed session.

New Defense Secretary by end of the week. Merry Christmas Iraq and Amerika!

[KoKo]

20. Max Cleland on saying We Need to PULL OUT our Troops! CNN has

him on after Gates News Breaking. He's doing a great job. Blitzer even says that He (Blitzer) couldn't understand after covering Gulf WarI why Bush went in with such a small force." He's verifying Cleland's saying that we don't have enough troops and we need to start an Exit Strategy Now.

Strategic Withdrawal like Murtha said. Good. He's giving Max lots of time.

[leftofthedial]

24. things are off to a bad start

[KoKo]

26. He still has to be confirmed by FULL Senate....but we don't know the

motivations. I hope they tell us. Imagine some articles will be written that will explain this for those of us who worked for change and voted.

I know they know we are out here.

[ecstatic]

25. Does it matter if they know what they are doing? They can just apologize later

when Gates turns out to be a neocon f*ckup.

"We didn't know..."

:sarcasm:

[Danieljay]

31. and I see he wasn't under oath...what a joke.

[KoKo]

38. He must have been "under oath." I don't have a link...do you? n/t

[flpoljunkie]

45. Chairman Warner said it was not necessary for Gates to be under oath, as he would tell the truth.

Amazing, isn't it?

[KoKo]

49. Maybe "Hearings" are just questions so NOT Under Oath but it seems

that Repugs have gotten so many passes about folks being under oath that one wonders how this can work. Should Gates have been "under oath" if anyone bothered to ask him about Iran Contra and past dealings but taken "off oath" when he was asked what he would do about Iraq?

That's the quetion. Should hearings be open (which I assume is why he wasn't under oath for his "opinions" yet if he was asked about past deeds pertinent to the job he is being interviewed should he have been UNDER OATH?

:shrug: Hard to know...but upsetting even if they were being fair. Who was "fair to us?" All these years...

[stonecoldsober]

33. Not to worry, grassahoppa

Didn't anyone fill you in on plan z (squared) ???

[KoKo]

44. I know...it's easy to fall into "cynicism." But, there is a reason..some other

good stuff is going on. But, unless we "Hold Feet to Fire" the effort could get lazy.....

[Phredicles]

36. I see the Stockholm Syndrome Democrats are still a force...

:eyes: :grr: :puke:

[blogslut]

37. So many old Iran/Contra players

So many of Poppy's guys. I didn't like those guys then. Now it's like they're all back. Sure, they're grownups...bad grownups.

[KoKo]

41. Yes.....that's the worry with so many of us DU'ers. Poppy/Reagan/Nixon

Crowd...like the Zombies that never get sick and die. They LIVE...FOREVER.

Something is wrong that they seem to go on and infect every administration with their Lies and Manipulation....YET! they are NEVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE!

Something is VERY WRONG!!!! :-(

[shance]

Bush Sr. has been the man behind the curtain for the past six years

He used his son by making him the front man so they could implement policy in the shadows.

[KoKo]

46. .....and Poppy runs out of Old Warriors when the New Turks Appear...

and the Kissingers and Coen's and Bergers and all those Cold Warriors start to get senile. (They seem to go on forever...but "forever" isn't really "forever" when your ideology is so corrupt! They had a GOOD RUN..time for them to go.........:nuke:

[Hippo_Tron]

42. Who is Bush going to send us that is better than Gates?

John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz? If we don't confirm his nominees then at some point he will just let someone run the department as Acting Secretary for the rest of his two years.

At least Gates has said that budget requests will be part of the regular budget and that

Iran-Contra was 20 years ago and the time to complain about the fact that these crooks got off was then, not now.

[KoKo]

47. Good Point....Who was there available that wasn't Dead or in Jail?

Could Dems have come up with someone else besides Gates? Who was there? Given that Dems are coerced into "Lame Duck Session" and many of their candidates would be old "Cold Warrior Hacks" ...WHO could they have picked?

Given Lame Duck...who could have been appointed if Dems had gone off into a new Dean Dem? :shrug:

[David Zephyr]

50. Amazing. Gates has SCAB!

The extent of the Bush tentacles on every part of the U.S. government is simply without measure.

And now we learn he wasn't even under oath. Why should he be bothered? He has the Seal of Criminal Approval by the Bushes. That's SCAB.

[Cleita]

51. I think it's time for more mail and phone calls to our reps.

We were able to keep Henry Kissinger out of one of their crony appointments. I think a call of outrage over this could help. At the very least it might keep him from acting like a criminal.