Bush again picks veteran of father's era

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Once again, President Bush has reached back to a veteran of his father's administration to fill a top national security post and help him out of a bind. In this case, he enlisted Robert Gates, who served both as CIA director and deputy national security adviser in the first Bush presidency, to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary.

Bush also is looking to another Bush family loyalist, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, to help him find an exit strategy from Iraq. Baker co-chairs a bipartisan commission on Iraq that is to release its recommendations soon.

Bush said the mild-mannered Gates would help provide a "new direction" for the Pentagon, and should be able to work with the new Democratic Congress. Gates, 63, now president of Texas A&M, has held national security jobs in both Democratic and Republican administrations.

While trying to avoid mistakes made by his one-term father, Bush has shown no reluctance in enlisting senior members of dad's old team to help him with some heavy lifting.

Much of Bush's top national security team — both in his first and second terms — worked in his father's administration or that of previous Republican presidents.

Vice President Dick Cheney was his father's defense secretary. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the first Bush administration. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was a national security aide in the first Bush White House, and U.N. Ambassador John Bolton worked in the State Department in the Reagan and first Bush administrations.

"I think it's logical to go to experienced people from your own party — in this case, people the president knows real well," said Charles Black, a longtime GOP consultant close to the White House.

"Certainly, Secretary Rumsfeld got the reputation of not being conciliatory. Whether that was fair or not, Gates is known as someone who works well across party lines and is a person who sees himself as a problem solver," Black said.

Rumsfeld was not in the elder Bush's circle and advocated a more aggressive course on Iraq. He first served as defense secretary in the Ford administration.

As for Baker, the president turned to him even before arriving at the White House, choosing him to represent the Republican side in the 2000 presidential recount in Florida.

The Iraq panel, which Baker co-chairs with former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, will soon make recommendations on a future course for U.S. policy in Iraq. Gates is a member of the panel.

Baker has indicated the recommendations will fall somewhere between the "cut and run" strategy that Republicans like to say Democrats advocate, and the "stay the course" policy until recently enunciated by the president and widely ridiculed by Democrats.

Almost six in 10 voters disapproved of the war in Iraq, exit polls showed in midterm races that ended a 12-year GOP reign in the House and erased a Republican majority in the Senate.

Democrats who will control the new House and may run the Senate have been near unanimous in their call for the ouster of Rumsfeld, whom to many had become the face of the Iraq war.

They welcomed Bush's decision to nominate Gates, who is subject to Senate confirmation.

"He's an extremely competent, bright guy," said Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Stansfield Turner, who was CIA chief in the Carter administration, called Gates "an excellent choice, a lower-key fellow ... a little more classy."

Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas political scientist who has long studied the Bush family, called it "a good move. The quicker the better to take the sting out of defeat and to put the cooperative face on the administration."

Buchanan said Bush turns so often to people from his past because "it's a factor of trust. These are people who are trustworthy and competent first."

Stephen Cimbala, a Penn State political science professor who studies national security issues, called Gates "a savvy Washington insider, and a Bush loyalist — and open to suggestions. He's perfect for healing the interagency wounds of the past six years."

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EDITOR'S NOTE — Tom Raum has covered Washington for The Associated Press since 1973, including five presidencies.