Here he is, to save the daaaaaay!

It is late in the year, but it is not too late to nominate the most useless New York Times' fluffer piece on a Bush administration official.

Just over a month ago, Mr. Gates was a member of the Iraq Study Group, apparently as comfortable as the panel’s other members with recommending a major shift in Iraq strategy aimed at getting American combat troops out by early 2008.

“I didn’t dream at that time I would have actual responsibility for what goes forward,” Mr. Gates told reporters this week, in a statement that seemed to indicate he was having sudden doubts about at least some of the study group’s recommendations for getting out quickly.

Since taking office, he said publicly several times that the responsibilities of his office — and the need not to fail in Iraq — are weighing heavily on him.

How refreshing.

Anyway, better they weigh heavily on him and not his boss.