PREVIEW-Quick confirmation seen for Pentagon nominee Gates
Source: Reuters
By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (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. Unlike his successful 1991 nomination battle to head the CIA, the toughest part for Gates this time around may not be the hearings but the new job, observers said. "We are a country at war. While the newly empowered Democratic cohort on the Hill want to re-establish accountability, after calling for Rumsfeld's departure for so long, they don't want to stand in the way of that happening quickly," said Kurt Campbell, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank. Gates will undoubtedly face some tough questions, but "the biggest problem for him will not be confirmation but immediately thereafter, taking charge of the Pentagon and the problems in the months ahead," Campbell said. "A CAKEWALK" James Carafano, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation think-tank, said the hearing "will be a cakewalk." "Both Democrats and Republicans are comfortable with Gates, and it's not in anybody's interest to give him a hard time." The hearing takes place a day before the Iraq Study Group is to make recommendations to Bush. Gates took part in the group before he was nominated to the Pentagon. Rumsfeld resigned the day after voter discontent with the Iraq war gave election wins in November to Democrats who will take control of Congress from Bush's Republicans in January. No senator has spoken publicly against Gates' nomination, although several say they are withholding judgment pending the hearing. Even these senators, however, have remarked on Gates' "distinguished" record running the CIA from 1991-93. The Democrats say they will look for two things from Gates -- a commitment to change in Iraq and a willingness to show some backbone to the rest of the Bush administration. "When it comes to our failed policy in Iraq, it's important that the White House not only change the cast, but also the script," said Philippe Reines, aide to New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a member of the Armed Services panel. Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, who will chair the panel when Democrats take control next year, says the important thing is to determine whether Gates is willing to "speak truth to power" and not just tell Bush what he wants to hear. In 1991, during hearings on his bid to head the CIA, Gates was accused of skewing intelligence reports in the 1980s to suit the Reagan administration's hard-line anti-Soviet views. Back then Gates also faced drawn-out questioning over his alleged role in the "Iran-Contra" affair, involving secret U.S. arms sales to Iran and diversion of profits to Nicaragua's Contra rebels. Levin voted against Gates then because he thought he had not been "forthcoming" about Iran-Contra.
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
