General Peter Pace was let go today as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. That's a good thing. But the administration has tolerated his poor performance for too long, and dismissed him fearing his anticipated reconfirmation hearing would be ugly.
If the administration was hoping to avoid answering the tough questions, by avoiding a reconfirmation hearing for Pace, they can forget it.
General Pace grossly overstepped his bounds and poorly represented the military with his political actions and misguided statements.
The straw that broke the camel's back, for us, was his defense of a convicted felon, Scooter Libby, when it was entirely improper for him to do so, as a top leader in the military, who must remain non-partisan.
General Pace has made a number of other missteps that reflected poorly on the military as of late:
On Memorial Day, Pace seemed to defend the President's failed policy by deliberating fudging American death numbers from Iraq to sound not as high as they really are.
On March 11, Pace chose to publicly air his personal views on homosexuality, calling the lifestyle "immoral," and said that was justification for the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays openly serving.
In today's press conference announcing the move, Secretary of Defense Gates maintained that one of the reasons for letting Pace go was to avoid a contentious reconfirmation hearing. They won't avoid the tough questions, if VoteVets.org has anything to do with it.
This president has to, and will, be held accountable. It doesn't matter how many people they let go. Congress has a job to do, and we expect that they will do it. We'll be there to be sure they do.