[…] “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.” (more…)







