Iraq Timetable Unlikely to Change: Gates

It’s “fairly remote” that deteriorating conditions in Iraq will delay President Obama’s withdrawal timetable, Robert Gates told NBC’s Meet the Press. The defense secretary also insisted that the US military will achieve “significant success” once it leaves Iraq. As for his bosses, Gates said Obama “is somewhat more analytical” than President Bush. Bold assertions flew across the Sunday dial:

• Rush Limbaugh is "the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party," Rahm Emanuel told Face the Nation.
• To bypass a politicized Congress, Obama might convene a health care board or commission to enact reform, Obama budget whiz Peter Orszag said on ABC.
• And Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday confronted Jon Kyl with a list of the $118 million in earmarks he requested, asking, "Who are you to lecture the Democrats on spending?"

(More Robert Gates stories.)