I floated the idea yesterday that Robert Gates is the greatest defense secretary of all time. We can debate that. What can’t be debated is that he’s the most gangster.

What other defense secretary would announce his next year’s budget and then, in an oh-by-the-way manner, mention that he’s fired the head of the Joint Strike Fighter program for failing to stop massive cost overruns? As Noah explains, the JSF is the manned plane of the future. It was Gates’ way of killing the F-22. And it’s filled with problems. So Gates just fires the guy who presided over the cost overruns! That just doesn’t happen. Cost overruns are the way of the defense-industry world. No one insists on accountability for overruns, because overruns are how the industry makes a ton of money and members of Congress get jobs to their districts. But Gates is like, “when things go wrong, people will be held accountable.” I half expected DJ Drama to do a gangsta-grillz drop after Gates let that one go.

Who does that? Who goes into a press conference, takes a cigar from his jacket pocket, points it at the reporters and essentially says to a two-star general who isn’t in the room, You had your hand in my pocket and now it’s come back on you? Then he lays back, lights the cigar, swirls the cognac in his glass and lets everyone else interpret his move. GANGSTA… Gangsta… gangsta… GRIZZ-ILLS…