Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made international news this week with the release of a memoir that serves up a big helping of unvarnished criticism of his former boss, President Obama.
But his scalding of the sitting commander in chief seems practically tame compared to the beat down he delivers to members of Congress.
And that includes Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who, Gates asserts, once urged him to have the Defense Department "invest in research on irritable bowel syndrome."
"With two ongoing wars and all our budget and other issues," Gates writes, "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry."
Mostly, however, what Gates does is rage against Congress in Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.
"Congress," he opines, "is best viewed from a distance – the farther the better – because close up it is truly ugly."
Gates, who also served as defense secretary under President George W. Bush, swings broadly in an unbridled insult-fest in a late section of his book called "Reflections."
And he also goes narrow, picking a few members, like Reid and Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, for special attention.
Let's start with Gates' overall denunciation of Congress, which includes his suggestion that some may be in need of mental health services:
"My view of the majority of the United States Congress"
"...uncivil, incompetent in fulfilling basic constitutional responsibilities, micro-managerial, parochial, hypocritical, egotistical, thin-skinned, often putting self (and reelection) before country...."