And there's enough Dems that are old enough to remember him playing dumb during Iran Contra:

>Gates's explanation of these events was.....not because he was concerned about North. Gates was concerned, he said, about Congress finding a CIA employee anywhere close to the situation. Gates claimed he had not considered the legality or nature of what North was doing on behalf of the contras: ``I had no concerns --but I didn't think a CIA person should do it.''

Then this: (think several years down the pike after another political disaster)
>Gates, Grand Jury, 2/19/88, pp. 13-14 (found intelligence ``confusing,'' so he stopped reading it); Gates, Grand Jury, 5/1/91, p. 138 (intelligence showed ``a couple of Iranian arms dealers . . . lying to each other,'' so he stopped reading it).

So, just like Condi Rice, you don't "know anything" even when it's happening under your nose, and you certainly don't read anything you don't want to.......... like Intelligence reports.

If you want to pick through it go <here.>