Senators So Very, Very Not Contrary Toward Gates

Even the war protesters lacked enthusiasm: Only six dissenters answered organizers' call to picket in front of the Hart Office Building before the hearing. In this environment, Gates felt comfortable enough to lighten things up a bit. When Ben Nelson proposed continually increasing the bounty for Osama bin Laden, Gates noted: "A sort of Terrorist Powerball."

Gates made no promise to end the war in Iraq or to bring home the troops. But he endeared himself to the candor-starved senators at the start with just two words. "Mr. Gates, do you believe that we are currently winning in Iraq?" Levin asked.

"No, sir," Gates replied. In fact, he worried about "the very real risk and possible reality of a regional conflagration."

Seven times, Gates assured the senators that all options are "on the table" -- even a "dramatically smaller" number of troops in Iraq. Nine times, Gates and his questioners agreed on the need for "fresh eyes" or a "fresh look" or a "fresh approach" -- a development Levin, Bill Nelson and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) declared "refreshing."

But if Gates was offering fresh eyes (his reading glasses rested on the witness table), he could not promise a fresh face. The veteran of the George H.W. Bush administration was ushered into the room by a literal old guard: former senators Bob Dole and David Boren.

The current senators, having embraced Gates as the ticket out of Iraq, encouraged him to say something bad about Bush policies. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) got Gates to criticize the administration's disbanding of the Iraqi army and de-Baathification of the government. McCain got him to say that "there clearly were insufficient troops." Byrd got him to say that it would be folly to attack Iran or Syria. Warner got him to say that Bush "understands that there needs to be a change in our approach in Iraq." Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) got him to say that Iraq wasn't necessarily the "central front" in the fight against terrorism. Levin got him to criticize the Pentagon's handling of intelligence.

But it was Kennedy, the old liberal, who elicited an emotional response when he noted that 59 Americans had been killed in Iraq since Gates was nominated.

Gates, unlike some predecessors at the Pentagon, knew the war's total tally: 2,889 dead as of Monday morning. "Twelve graduates of Texas A&M have been killed in Iraq," said the nominee, who is A&M's president. "I would run in the morning with some of those kids. . . . I'd hand them their degrees, I'd attend their commissioning, and then I would get word of their death. So this all comes down to being very personal for all of us."

Very well said.