Barring (the) Gates

Like many, I had long anticipated the day when Donald Rumsfeld would take his leave. But the immediate choice of Robert Gates as his successor never struck me as cause for much relief. Seems I am not alone.

Tristero, at Hullabaloo, has suggested retired Gen. Shinseki, instead. Speaking of Gates, he writes,

. . . what's the downside to this guy? Well, among other things, as we all know by now he was so close to Iran/Contra he nearly got indicted. That's kind of a big downside, given how scandal-prone this administration is. But there's another problem with him: Robert Gates has no specific qualifications to run the Department of Defense.

OK, Tristero doesn't really mean Shinseki per se:

Of course, I know that Bush would never accept Shinseki. And of course, just about no one with an ounce of self-respect or talent would agree to report directly to George W. Bush unless they were a longtime family friend.
The real point of this post is two-fold. First of all, Bush hasn't changed in the slightest and is still jerking the country around, including the troops who are laying down their lives implementing his utterly insane war.
More importantly, given how much political capital Dems have right now, there is only one reason I can think of why this country should tolerate any more of Bush's clowning: We're so used to it we can't think of anything better. But let's conduct a quick thought experiment: Imagine a presidency where top positions were filled by qualified women and and men, not goons so unconditionally loyal they had knee pads surgically attached.
. . . So I can't think of a single reason why Bush can't start behaving like a real President instead of a scared rabbit. There is nothing to stop him from appointing competent AND knowledgeable people to high positions who don't have incidents in their past that seriously call into question their integrity. Provided Democrats insist.
And I think, for a lot of reasons the Democrats should insist. Bush can start right now. Gates should never have been nominated and he should not be confirmed.

Hear, hear. Gates should be barred, and a genuine, qualified and clean candidate found. Remember the "what is the Democrats' plan?" jibe? Well here's part of a plan: let's appoint good, qualified leadership to lead the Defense Department, and not just one more partisan hack. I seem to recall that Clinton appointed a Republican or two. Why go along with more of same from old Stay-the-Course? "Bi-partisanship" begins now.