Gates to Stay SECDEF

Hippies Sad that Secretary of Defense Not Brought Up on War Crimes

Politico and Mudville Gazette have the latest leak from the Obama transition team, and this time it's actually some good news:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has agreed to stay on under President-elect Barack Obama, according to officials in both parties. Obama plans to announce a national-security team early next week that includes Gates at the Pentagon and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of state, officials said.

The current SECDEF, Robert Gates, has been hailed as competently running our counterinsurgency conflicts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The loudest opposition has been from the anti-war fanatics in Code Pink, who could not be reached for comment at this time, since they are busy committing treason in Iran. The other reason for opposition seems to be that putting a Republican in charge of the DoD will show that Democrats are weak on national security. From Open Left:

Further, keeping Gates on would only worsen Democratic image problems on national security, as he would be the second consecutive non-Democratic Secretary of Defense nominated by a Democratic President. The message would be clear: even Democrats agree that Democrats can't run the military.

For the record, Gates is a registered Independent, and I'd wager most Americans are more interested in successfully stabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan than the John Wayne-like branding of the Democratic party.