As Think Progress notes, last night the boss floated a very well-sourced rumor that Secretary Gates will be out by the end of the year and replaced by Chuck Hagel, who the boss described as an "advocate of retreat everywhere." Indeed Hagel is not only an advocate of retreat everywhere, he is set to be the keynote speaker at J Street's Israel-bashing conference at the end of the month. If Kristol's intel is on target, watch for Hagel to skip the J Street confab in favor of something more respectable...like a Van Jones seminar on the collapse of World Trade Center 7.