Gates to Kennedy: Bush knows best

The president has a "longer view" than the public does.

Published January 12, 2007 4:23PM (EST)

Sen. Ted Kennedy just asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to wait 10 days before implementing the president's plan to escalate the war in Iraq so that the Senate can determine "if the American people are behind it."

Gates said he'd pass the message along to Bush, but he made it clear that the answer would probably be no. "Quite honestly," he said, "I think [Bush] believes that sometimes the president has to take actions that contemporaneously don't have the broad support of the American people because sometimes he has a longer view."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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