Webloggin » Gates Is Confirmed By Senate Vote 95-2

The Senate just confirmed Robert Gates as the next Secretary of Defense with nearly a near unanimous vote, 95-2.

He will be sworn in on December 19th and Rumsfeld’s last day will be on the 18th.

The Nay votes came from Republicans Rick Santorum and Jim Bunning.

The NYTimes is out with the story (finally – where have they been).

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — Robert M. Gates, President Bush’s nominee to be defense secretary, was confirmed by the Senate this afternoon, hours after the Iraq Study Group offered recommendations meant to gradually reduce the United States’ role in Iraq and stem the increasing violence there.

Of course they rehash the earlier stories that went over his troubles with the 1991 confirmation.

Mr. Gates’s appearance before the panel won him broad support. Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island said just before the vote today that he was sure Mr. Gates would have “a completely different management style” from his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, in that he would be willing to listen to differing viewpoints, both from military officers and civilian aides.

Today’s vote for Mr. Gates was in sharp contrast to the 1991 vote which confirmed him as head of the Central Intelligence Agency. Thirty-one senators, all Democrats, voted against him then, with many complaining that he had been less than forthcoming about his role in the Iran-contra affair.

The interesting thing to note about the 1991 vote was that he was opposed because he was thought to be bullying intelligence analysts to go along with the Regan administrations views on policy. This is the very same sort of thing that caused Democrats to oppose Bolton for his post to the U.N..

My, how times have changed!

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