Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was clearly reluctant to answer David Gregory’s question about the contrasting leadership styles between President Bush and President Obama. But when pressed he explained that Obama is “more analytical” and goes further out of his way to hear from ...

Remember that George W. Bush got excoriated for this kind of thing: On Wednesday, the president met with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen and Central Command commander four-star Gen. David Petraeus. Gates, supported by Mullen and Petraeus, ...

Wednesday Evening News Roundup Hillary Clinton has been confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of State.  The final vote was 94-2.  Senator David Vitter, the one that’s been linked to prostitution rings in two cities, and Senator Jim DeMint (Republican from South Carolina) were the only two th...

Except for Richard Nixon, no president since Harry Truman has left office more unloved than George W. Bush. Truman's rehabilitation took decades. Bush's will come sooner. Indeed, it has already begun. The chief revisionist? Barack Obama....

The top Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to trial has concluded that the U.S. military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained....

Much of interest here: Early in 2008, the Israeli government signaled that it might be preparing to take matters into its own hands. In a series of meetings, Israeli officials asked Washington for a new generation of powerful bunker-busters, far more capable of blowing up a deep underground plant th...

Benen: As part of the transition team's "Open for Questions" project, press secretary Robert Gibbs responded to questions posed online and voted on by visitors to change.gov. The final inquiry: Is the new administration going to get rid of the "don't ask don't tell" policy? Gibbs responded, "Thaddeu...

We no longer have a civilian-led government. It is hard for a lifelong Republican and son of a retired Air Force colonel to say this, but the most unnerving legacy of the Bush administration is the encroachment of the Department of Defense into a striking number of aspects of civilian government.......

In naming retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as veterans affairs secretary, President-elect Barack Obama made what may be the most politically and morally significant choice of his transition....

For what have been described as reasons of "continuity," President-elect Obama has chosen to retain Robert Gates as his Secretary of Defense, at least for the short term.  It's of no small interest, then, to see what Secretary Gates has post-Obama-nod to say about his vision for the future of t...