The Gates Factor
There’s been a rash of interest recently in the idea of Robert Gates staying on as Defense Secretary for maybe 9-12 months in order to smooth the military transition and give time for his eventually replacement to gain some seasoning as Deputy Secretary or some such. Part of the calculation is based on the fact that there are various indications, including some of Gates speeches since becoming SecDef, and things like the Iran CFR task-force he co-headed before becoming Secretary that Gates’ underlying views are closer to Obamaism than to Bushism.
To me that’s all plausible enough, but it’s just very hard to actually know from sitting behind your computer. Before making any such decisions, you would expect the president-elect to sit down with Gates and actually assess what he thinks about various things and what kinds of policies he’d be prepared to support. This pimping for the Reliable Replacement Warhead is not only wrong on the merits, but at least could indicate that Gates wouldn’t be on board for Obama’s ambitious pledge to pursue steps toward global nuclear disarmament. Since this latter pledge has been endorsed by Republicans like George P. Shultz and Henry Kissinger it’s something that you would hope a Republican with a reputation for pragmatism like Gates would be willing to embrace and lend some bipartisan cover to. But since it’s also probably the most substantively important part of the foreign policy vision Obama has outlined, it’d be absolutely crucial for the whole team to be on board.
31 Responses to “The Gates Factor”
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October 30th, 2008 at 8:47 am
I like Gates, but I really hate the perception that Democratic administrations should have Republican SECDEFs. I think it might make sense to ask Gates to stay as an advisor on the NSC (or, more radically, move him to State) for six months, but get a Democrat in the DOD. If Democrats believe we’re better at national security than Republicans, then we should look forward to a Democrat running Defense.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:57 am
boz gets it right. Why reinforce that Dems are so bad at Foreign Relations and Military matters by having a Republican Secretary of Defense?
Read this again;
Don’t Democrats ever learn? Does anyone remember a certain Head of an important Executive Agency and a certain President? Would George Bush appoint say Joe Biden?
October 30th, 2008 at 9:09 am
If Gates is not prepared to end our senseless land wars in Asia, as president I would ask him to join said wars, along with the Kagans, et al.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:19 am
In full agreement with boz and Teh Editas: Gates may be a terriffic guy, and I’ll buy him a beer if he’s in town, but no. No Republicans at State, no Republicans at Treasury, no Republicans at Defense. This is why we’re having an election. The idea of retaining Gates gets awfully close to what Atrios calls the “GOP daddies in nice suits” complex.
If Obama wants to “reach out” with a cross-party cabinet post, he can make some Republican Secretary of Making Sure There’s Enough Coffee and Sandwiches at Cabinet Meetings.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Obama would be a moron to have Gates or any Republican serve as Secretary of Defense. Bill Clinton did that with Republican William Cohen from 1997-2001.
So did you ever see William Cohen defend Bill Clinton’s handling of Bin Laden in that period when Bush supporters tried to evade responsibility for Sept 11 by pointing fingers at Bill Clinton?
It’s stupid to have an enemy spy in such a high level post.
Plus there are scams the military and intel community ran in the late 1990s that I don’t think Bill Clinton knew about. Including one scam that could have destroyed Hillary’s campaign for President at an opportune moment if Hillary had gotten the Democratic nomination.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Well, if Obama sticks with Gates, we know he’s not serious about global nuclear disarmament.
Congress has been very clear for a long time that RRW is not something they want to fund, even before the Democrats took over. No one wants this thing except the people who will get the money to build it.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I’m with Boz and Teh Editas. Clinton had a Republican Secretary of Defense during his second term. So we have had twelve straight years of Republican defense secretaries. I’m not that happy about the idea of another year.
What I want to know is what the defense department is planning that would require a 9-12 month post-inauguration extension in order to accomplish a “seamless transition”? Why can’t Gates accomplish a seamless transition by working closely with the new guy for the two and a half months between election and inauguration? That’s plenty of time. Are the folks in the Pentagon expecting to be suddenly very busy during that two and a half month transition period?
Or is this all about the damn SOFA?
October 30th, 2008 at 9:40 am
If Gates could be used as a hatchet man to break up the Air Force, I’d be all for keeping him. It would be a lot easier for a Republican to do that than a Democrat.
Of course, breaking up the Air Force is probably not actually on Obama’s agenda.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:58 am
There is a better case for Obama appointing a Republican as Secretary of Transportation.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:02 am
You guys are crazy. Gates has already made a great secretary of defense, and will be remembered as being Bush’s only sane cabinet choice (outside of Colin Powell). Of course, H.W. basically forced it on him, but he still made it.
Quit worrying so much about perception and look at the strides Gates has made.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Make him swear a loyalty oath to Barack….
Oh wait, he’s probably already done that for George Bush.
Kick him out. Having Gaters around reinforces the perception that Dem’s don’t know nuttin about Defense and they need big tough Republicans around to help them in the scary world.
Nothing against Gates, but this meme has got be stomped, thrashed and beaten to a pulp. How’s that for tough?
October 30th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Plus, if you’re using Republicans then make Colin Powell Secretary of Defense and Condi Rice Secretary of State.
Because it would drive the South absolutely batshit.
October 30th, 2008 at 10:40 am
The big job for the Secretary of Defense is deciding where the defense budget cuts are going to hit.
Much of the Southern economy is based upon the multiplier effect from feeding at the Defense trough (the real reason Southern politicans are “strong on defense” )
There an argument that if defense cuts were to fall disportionately upon the South, then the place would quickly begin to look as if it had been buttfucked by General Sherman.
Some might argue that is a feature, not a bug. The picture of white rednecks petitioning a Negro President for an increase in their welfare allotments has a certain je ne sais quoi. Maybe Obama can announce his economic revitalization program — 40 acres and a mule.
There is one other engine in the Southern economy — building supplies. Lumber etc feeding into Home Depot. But something tells me that little train engine is about petered out.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Does anyone remember a certain Head of an important Executive Agency and a certain President? Would George Bush appoint say Joe Biden?
Why on Earth would we want to use George Bush as an example of what to do?
There’s a lot to the idea that we want to have a democrat as SECDEF, but I think there’s something to the idea that keeping on Gates for a period has merit, not because he’s a Republican, but because he’s been doing good work on the merits, and work that’s largely in line with Obama’s vision.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I think Boz said the same thing briefer in the first comment, but here’s something I wrote yesterday when the subject of Gate’s staying on came up.
As the current Secretary of Defense, IMO Gates does a decent job. If things were like they were in ‘92, it would make sense to keep him on for a while. But the urge to purge (an appropriate one, I might add) will leave very few, if any holdovers from the previous administration remaining.
Plus, Democrats need to get out of the habit of hiring republicans for Secretary of Defense. To be taken seriously on ‘national security’ issues, the Democrats need to take these issues seriously themselves. And this means not always bunting, but occasionally putting on the hit and run. Plus, from a big picture structural standpoint, it is worthwhile to build up a bullpen with both left handed and right handed relievers.
If there was an intrade market on such things, if Danzig was less than 50%, I’d buy. They could potentially bring back Perry, but he’s awfully old, and does not quite fit in with the theme of change. I doubt they would could with Nunn either, as it would be too much of a stick in the eye to the base. (would the democrats filllibuster their own guy? that would be something). But if it’s not Danzig, it’s likely to be another AAA guy (or girl) that hasn’t really been in the press all that much
October 30th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
you people obsessing over an SecDef democrat are myopic.
Obama should fire gates–and then appoint a Republican senator in his place. in fact his entire cabinet should be composed of Republican senators.
that’s how you’re gonna shit done.
October 30th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I really think the Obama Team needs to run him and get their own man in. The Pentagon _and_ the upper parts of the Military have been massively politized, largely to spread Bush Admin Propoganda. That all needs to be cleaned out. You can’t start that process on January 2010. It needs to be started now.
If Gates truly has value, one can ask him to stick around as an Special Advisor for specific issues (say Iraq). But we all know there’s a hell of a lot more to the DOD than Iraq, and the Obama Admin and his new Team need to get hit the ground running on those things come January 2009.
John
October 30th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
If gates can come on mid-war without any prep to replace Rummy, whey would we need him to stay on to transition. Ain’t gonna happen. He’s out. The whole Bush cabinet is out. There may be Repubs appointed, but not Bush people.
October 30th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Matt, why are you sitting BEHIND your computer. I’m typing this from in front of my computer and must say it seems much the better technique.
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