Word: sen
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Other key Democrats are disappointed that the commission's recommendations didn't go as far as they might have. Sen. Carl Levin, who will take over the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised the report for proposing a "comprehensive plan for a change in course, including calling for an end to the open-ended commitment of American troops as a way of pressing the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own future." But he was disappointed the commission didn't specify a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawals - which he wants to begin in four to six months...
...outset of the hearing, Sen. Carl Levin, who will take over the committee chairmanship in January, hit Gates with a loaded question right off the bat: "Do you believe that we are currently winning in Iraq...
...years ago, seemed almost relieved that he was willing now to take over the Defense Department. Simply hearing Gates acknowledge that the U.S. was not winning the war is "a necessary refreshing breath of reality," Levin said. Gates's candor is "something that has been sorely lacking," added Sen. Hillary Clinton, another Democrat on the committee...
...Democrats' chief worry was whether Gates's straight talk would make a difference with Bush. The candor was welcome, Sen. Evan Bayh told the nominee, "but you are not the ultimate decision-maker." Gates's close friends have the same fear. "Bob could be pragmatic," one told TIME, "yet the ultimate decision-maker is not in the Pentagon. He's across the river in the White House. There's a very stubborn moral streak in George Bush." Bayh asked what made Gates assume Bush would take his advice. "Senator, because he asked me to take the job," Gates responded...
...insisted that Gates never biased intelligence. Graham Fuller, a Gates colleague at the CIA, contended that many of the analysts in SOVA were themselves guilty of liberal bias, painting the Soviet Union as too benign, to compensate for Casey's conservative views. Gates's defenders, who also included then-Sen. Warren Rudman, claimed Gates was a victim of character assassination by the left. Armed with his own set of documents, an angry Gates marched into the committee room with a detailed 20-point rebuttal of the politicization charges. He accused critics from the agency of being malcontents who mistook professional...