Glasnost At The Pentagon

Gates said he had intended to recommend that Pace be renominated for the position. "However, after consultations over the course of several weeks with both Republican and Democratic senators, I concluded that because Gen. Pace has served as chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the last six years, the focus of his confirmation process would have been on the past rather than the future, and further that there was the very real prospect the process would be quite contentious," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.