[…]  “The temptation to stand up, slam the briefing book shut and quit on the spot  recurred often,” Gates writes. “All too frequently, the exit lines were on the  tip of my tongue: ‘I may be the secretary of defense, but I am also an American  citizen, and there is no son of a bitch in the world who can talk to me like  that. I quit. Find somebody else.’

It was, I am confident, a fantasy widely  shared throughout the executive branch. And it was always enjoyable to listen to  three former senators — Obama, Biden and Clinton — trash-talking Congress.”

[…]  For a National Security Council member to call a four-star combatant commander  or field commander “would have been unthinkable when I worked at the White House  and probably cause for dismissal,” Gates writes. “It became routine under Obama.

I directed commanders to refer such calls to my office. The controlling nature  of the Obama White House, and its determination to take credit for every good  thing that happened while giving none to the people in the cabinet departments —  in the trenches — who had actually done the work, offended Hillary Clinton as  much as it did me.”  (read more)