Tom Ricks: Gates in trouble with GOP?

[laststeamtrain]

Gates in trouble with GOP?
Tom Ricks

Until now, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been Washington's bipartisan heartthrob. But as he settles in with the new administration, suspicion is growing among his old Republican buddies. There is growing belief on the right that President Obama will use him for political cover to slash weapons programs and the defense budget. Push may come to shove next week if Gates rolls out his tough choices, which likely will cause great pain in parts of the Navy and Air Force -- and in congressional districts that bend metal for warships and fighter planes.

Here is how my old friend (and uber-hawk) Tom Donnelly of the militarily promiscuous AEI puts it:

"Obama is going to be cutting defense budgets (and we shall see what happens in Iraq and Afghanistan) and Gates gives him top cover that no Dem can give. Obama needs Gates through this year's budget, the QDR process and the 2011 budget-build, and these are difficult defense issues that matter a lot more than gays or satisfying any of the party constituencies, because they could jeopardize Obama's domestic priorities. Gates, for reasons that I cannot quite figure out, has agreed to this Faustian bargain."

My bet is that Gates will stay on until about this time next year, and leave when the QDR (Quadrennial Defense Review) is done. By then, I predict, Republicans will be crying, "Bobby, we hardly knew ye."

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/03/gates_in_trouble_with_gop

[Dennis Donovan]

1. He who strays from the Military Industrial Complex...

...MIGHT meet the fate of JFK.

Mr Gates, come clean because the truth MIGHT keep you SAFE.

[stillcool]

3. I would think the GOP might want.

to back off him. He surely knows where all the bodies are buried. I hope he's got a "If I die" letter set to go. But then, who would he send it to?

[Dennis Donovan]

4. He'd send it to Tom Ricks or Sy Hersch...

People who would allow it to see the light of day.;)

[villager]

5. Wondered if your header was going to lead there, and yes...

... there are always a few spare "lone nuts" if anybody every strays too far off the allowed "American reservation..."

[Raymond Budelman]

2. Military troubles

Why would anyone not want to be in trouble with the GOP? I'd hate to be in their good graces.

[goforit]

6. If china now has a weapon that can destroy warships in 12 min. Why have a warship?