Spooks running the country. Spooks nominating spooks.
Bush hoping to protect his backside until he's homefree.

How can you keep all the skeletons in your closet from falling out?
By putting in someone who has more.

I knew that this Gates thing with Iran Contra is going to bite him this second time around. Check this out:
>"In testimony before the Senate on October 1, 1991, Harold Ford, former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council, described an aspect of Gates's personality that mirrors many of the top officials in the Bush administration today. "Bob Gates has often depended too much on his own individual analytic judgments and has ignored or scorned the views of others whose assessments did not accord with his own".

At the hearing, other CIA analysts said Gates forced them to twist intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by the former Soviet Union. Analysts alleged a report approved by Gates overstated Soviet influence in Iran that specifically led the late President Ronald Reagan into making policy decisions that turned into the Iran-contra scandal. "

SAY IT ISN'T SO!

It goes on:
>"But White House memos released at the time showed that North and Poindexter, the national security adviser at the time, engaged in classified briefings with Gates on numerous occasions about Iran-contra. Poindexter testified that he discussed the situation with Gates, but Gates said at his Senate confirmation hearings he had "no recollection" about those conversations.

NO RECOLLECTIONS!

What is so damned outrageous about this is , if confirmed, Gates would arguably be overseeing a war that removed a dictator he personally helped to prop up.
Iran Contra has always been a fascination of mine, my first introduction to the under belly of American politics. For more sordid details go <here.>