Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates may need to reset the digital time clock that has been ticking down to the moment on Jan. 20 when he planned to leave his job.
Several news organizations are reporting that Gates will be staying on as President-elect Barack Obama’s defense chief for at least a year. ABC News quoted a source close to transition process as saying that Gate’s appointment and decision to remain is a “done deal.”
Obama is expected to unveil his national security team on Monday. In addition to Gates, it is expected to include Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., as secretary of State, retired Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones as national security adviser, retired Adm. Dennis Blair as the director of National Intelligence, and Susan Rice as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
CQ Politics had reported on Nov. 11 that Obama was seriously considering this option.
With Gates staying on as defense secretary, Obama can say he is forming a bipartisan cabinet. Moreover, Obama can look to Gates for continuity at the Pentagon as he moves to keep his campaign promise to draw down troops in Iraq and bolster troop strength in Afghanistan — policies that Gates has embraced.
Gates is a political independent who has served under several Republican administrations. Previously, he served as a Soviet specialist on the National Security Council during the Reagan administration and as director of the CIA under President George H.W. Bush.
He took over at the Pentagon from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after Republicans lost control of the House and Senate in the 2006 midterm elections amid widespread disillusionment with the Iraq war. Unlike Rumsfeld, whom many lon Capitol Hill regarded as aloof and arrogant, Gates reached out to lawmakers and established good relations.
Gates has said that the digital clock in his pocket — which tells him how many days, hours, minutes and seconds there are to Jan. 20 — was given to him by a friend as a gag gift to countdown until the day he no longer has the stressful job as Defense Secretary. Now, it turns out, that’s just the date he’ll be getting a new boss.
— Jonathan Broder
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