Quality Shines Through

This is not professional:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirmed Thursday that he told liberal bloggers last week that he thinks outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace is "incompetent."

This is the epitome of professional:

I will tell you the truth as I know it, and that is around the middle of May, within a day or two of the Secretary learning from certain members of Congress that there may be a problem to renominate me, he brought me in the office and sat me down and said “Pete, this is what’s happening. I want to renominate you. I want you to know that this is what I’m beginning to hear, this is what I’m going to go do, this is how I’m going to go do it."
[...]
He and I sat down, and I said “I’m a Marine…If you want me to go forward with the confirmation process, I’m all for it.” I also told him that what he needed to do, in my opinion, was what was best for the institution, and whatever he and the president decided was going to be best for the institution was what Pete Pace was going to do.
[...]
I will run through the finish line on 1 October, and when I run through the finish line I will have met the mission I set for myself.

Personally I wish that Bush and Gates had put Pace forward for a confirmation battle. That would have provided another forum for the Dems to show their colors when it comes to the war. Of course Pace would not wish for that, since it would be unprofessional for him to do so simply for political reasons.

Godspeed Peter Pace in your future endeavors...

UPDATE: Here are a couple of more testimonies to Pace's service and competence.

UPDATE II: Greyhawk describes his arrival in Iraq, and at the end has some stern advice for Harry Reid.