Fanning Finally Confirmed as Secretary of the Army

Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas finally got whatever verbal assurance he needed from the Pentagon that no Guantanamo detainees would be sent to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas and, with that assurance, the confirmation of Eric Fanning as Secretary of the Army easily passed the Senate in a voice vote.  Fanning is the first openly gay leader of a military service.  What makes Roberts delaying shenanigans so ridiculous is the fact that, as Roberts very well knows and has himself clearly stated, there are already “legal restrictions on funding to move the detainees to Ft. Leavenworth by January 20, 2017”. There was already a legal roadblock that prevented the Obama administration from doing the very thing that Roberts needed a verbal assurance for. That verbal assurance is, I would imagine, non-binding but totally unnecessary anyway – and yet Roberts held up this nomination for months. Perhaps the recent publicity surrounding his one-man roadblock finally forced him to cave.