Gates Era to End at Texas A&M, Begin at the Pentagon

By all accounts Dr. Robert Gates' tenure at Texas A&M has been an extremely successful one.  He had just been featured in the November issue of Texas Monthly hailed as an agent of change.  But on Wednesday, all of that changed.  

As I drove down Central Expressway Wednesday around noon, I was shocked to hear that President George W. Bush (that may be the 1st time his name has appeared on this blog) had essentially fired Donald Rumsfeld.  Even more shocking to me was his replacement, the aforementioned Robert Gates, president of my alma matter.  But as the shock wore off I realized how logical the choice was.

I won't get into Dr. Gates credentials here, but you can get a feel for who he is at Wikipedia.  His ties to the Bush Family go back decades, as does everyone in the Bush Administration.  Gates, who was once the Director of the CIA, led the university, which is home to the Presidential Library of George H.W. Bush. Bush 41 was President while Gates was at the CIA.

I'm going to need a little latitude here from my readers. Because of Gates ties to my former school, I’m going dig into this a little because there are a couple of moving parts.  Hang with me, I'll use the clock Gates gave me that sits on my desk to make sure I don't spend too much time on this one…