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Dems Unlikely to Block Gates Nomination
"I expect him to be confirmed," Inouye said.
Other Democrats _ including Levin, who next year will chair the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy _ are holding their cards close on Gates but say they are eager to see if he is willing to advocate a new Iraq policy. Clinton, D-N.Y., and Kennedy, D-Mass., are expected to meet with Gates in the next few weeks.
  Defense Secretary-designate Robert Gates, right, walks with Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, left, before their meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Nov. 20, 2006. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) (Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP) 
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"The one thing he has going for him ... is that we want the change to take place very quickly," said Reid. "So it's to our interest to have this change at the head of the Defense Department as soon as possible."
According to an AP-Ipsos poll released Tuesday, only 31 percent of Americans approve of Bush's handling of Iraq.
Democrats say they are impressed by Gates' willingness to work with their party. Gates is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group, a bipartisan group of former senior U.S. officials and policy experts who meet regularly to discuss international affairs. Also, before being nominated by Bush, Gates was a member of a high-profile bipartisan panel assessing options in Iraq.
Reed, a senior member of the Armed Services panel, on Tuesday called Gates a "realistic voice on foreign affairs and somebody who deliberately tries to draw upon a cross section of views." He said he also was impressed Gates was willing to step out of private life to take on the challenge of Iraq.
"Those are all good qualities. There's a huge task facing him," Reed said.
Norman Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said he was not surprised. To oppose Gates or focus too much on his past at the CIA would be to pick the wrong battle with Bush if Democrats want Iraq policy to change, he said.
"I think they'll want to look forward," Ornstein said.
