Gates: SecDef Pick Comes with His Own GhostsThis morning, most folks will read the majors’ write-ups on Bob Gates, the friend-of-Bush-Senior’s whom president Bush is now beckoning into public service to replace departing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The majors’ profiles are all kind (sample headline: “Gates Lauded as Breaker of Barriers”), with nods to criticism of Gates, without really delving into why he twice faced heat from Congress. (Hint: Iran-Contra, twisting intelligence.)
To get the real backstory, I’m going to send you to Jeff Stein at Congressional Quarterly. The national security editor there, he put together a profile on Gates by yesterday evening that bests the major dailies for raking muck on the man Bush is hoping will rescue his legacy.
Go read it. The guy has an encyclopedic memory of spies and intelligence flaps built up from covering the classified world for about three decades. So he can report in an afternoon what would take me (and possibly, the majors) several days to find out.