Pic Of The Moment: Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates Compares GOP Candidates To Children

[EarlG]

Robert Gates: Republicans' grasp of national security is at a child's level

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[niyad]

1. while it is interesting that he is acknowledging this, let us not forget his history--head of cia,

involved in iran-contra, presided over the walter reed mess, etc., etc.

[malthaussen]

6. Doesn't make him uninformed, though...

... just untrustworthy. And that would go for any spook. I do wish somebody with a voice would speak out about the ridiculous jingoism of the country, though. I, for one, do not think chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A" proves anything except that there are a lot of idiots in the country.

-- Mal

[niyad]

10. untrustworthy, most definitely. when poppy was running, I was talking to a guy who had

bitterly commented when the former head of the kgb became head of the soviet union. I asked him why, in that case, it was okay for the head of the cia to become president. he had no idea that poppy had been head of the cia.

[malthaussen]

12. Well, Poppy's tenure was short...

... if you blinked, you might have missed it. Remember Garry Trudeau ridiculing Bush's resume when he was running for President? He never spent more than about two years in any post, so Poppy is asked "If you're elected President, how long do you think you'll stay on the job?" And Poppy answers "I think I can stay for the big four," which was prophetic, as it turns out. In any event. Bush was a bureaucrat, not really a spook, whereas Putin was a career agent. The fact that neither is trustworthy still applies, though.

-- Mal

[MADem]

8. His other history is that he has had experience dealing with a Child in Charge.

Let's not forget that Poppy basically shoved this guy down Porgie's throat after Porgie's many failures with Hiking Boots Rumsfeld. And frankly, that was probably one of Poppy's FINEST HOURS--because, left to their own lunatic devices, Porgie and Crew would have started WW3.

Gates had to BABYSIT a full-grown man-child who sat in the Oval Office with crazy ideas, while staving off a snarling, power-hungry VP who was only slowed down--not stopped--by a failing heart.

Gates has absolute authority to speak on this topic. He's Right On Point.


He knows one when he sees one.

[stonecutter357]

2. K&R!

[EdwardBernays]

3. Another recent Gates quote

"Hillary told the president that her opposition to the [2007] surge in Iraq had been political because she was facing him in the Iowa primary. .?.?."

- Robert Gates

[louis-t]

4. Kind of like when bush said he would

go to his oil buddies in Saudi Arabia and tell them to "open up the spigots".

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. Channeling/paraphrasing my inner Bartcop: Gates hates everybody. Today it's the GOP candidates.

[wordpix]

7. I say keep piling on and leaving the sinking r ship

[chapdrum]

9. Come now, Mr. Secretary

Tell us something we don't already know.

Your party has long encouraged what you are so tastefully observing.
From bottom to top, that is their affect.

"Cynical..." is a requisite trait for any Republican.

If only this served you right, and not the rest of us.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. The fact that any of them has been allowed to speak more than once is profoundly dismaying.

The diatribes that been pronounced since Gingrich, which have only increased in inanity, are deeply disturbing.
I really thought that once the Republicans had lost their collective minds about Palin, they might fall back to a more rational crop of ideas.

Boy, was I wrong.

[malthaussen]

13. Where do they go from here?

Can there be worse than Palin, Trump, and Cruz? Well, yes, there's always Tom Cotton.

-- Mal

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. After Reagan, I thought we could not get any dumber

then California elected Schwarzenegger
and the nation elected Bush.

[malthaussen]

15. In one of the earlier seasons of NCIS...

...Gibbs gets to play Rip Van Winkle, as he suffers traumatic amnesia in an explosion and thinks he's back in 1991 (takes place in 2004). He, too, is pretty amazed that California would elect Schwarzenegger. It reminds me of the old saying, if you think you've hit rock bottom, some cretin is bound to give you a shovel and tell you to start digging.

-- Mal