Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is asking many of the Bush administration's 250 Pentagon political appointees to remain on the job until the incoming Obama administration finds replacements -- a move designed to prevent a leadership vacuum with U.S. troops engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The unusual request by Mr. Gates, whom President-elect Barack Obama has asked to continue in his Cabinet post, ensures that key policy positions will not be left to "acting" subordinates as typically occurs when political appointees are directed to resign during a presidential transition.
"I have received authorization from the president-elect's transition team to extend a number of Department of Defense political appointees an invitation to voluntarily remain in their current positions until replaced," Mr. Gates said in a Friday e-mail.
The chance to stay is "available to all willing political appointees with the exception of those who are contacted individually and told otherwise," he said.
Geoff Morrell, Pentagon press secretary, confirmed that Mr. Gates wants to retain temporarily most political appointees, saying nearly all of the service secretaries and undersecretaries will remain until Senate confirmation of their successors, which can take months. He declined to identify who will be asked to leave.
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