The mainstream media is swooning over the “velvet” touch of Robert Gates, the new Secretary of Defense who declined, at this weekend’s European security conference in Germany, to take on Vladimir Putin after the Russian president’s provocative anti-American speech the day before.

Why can’t I help thinking that the New York Times is impressed by Gates not only because he decided not to respond to Putin, a thug, but also because Gates — who is obviously a walking laugh-riot — decided the time was right, in Europe of all places, to take a shot at his predecessor, Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld? Here’s the Times account from today:

The speech by Mr. Gates was delivered under the long shadow of his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, who both charmed and offended European audiences during his tenure as defense secretary, which included several speeches to this conference. Mr. Gates cast himself as a geopolitical realist and drew a knowing laugh when he focused on Mr. Putin’s assertion that the United States and its allies were dividing Europe. “All of these characterizations belong in the past,” Mr. Gates said. “The free world versus those behind the Iron Curtain. North versus South. East versus West, and I am told that some have even spoken in terms of ‘Old Europe’ versus ‘new.’ ” The last was a reference to a characterization Mr. Rumsfeld made in January 2003 to contrast Germany and France, which objected to the United States plan to invade Iraq, with neighboring supporters, not all of which are NATO members.

So Gates massages the obnoxious rhetoric of Putin but figures it’s fine to take a shot at a patriot, Rumsfeld. And why? To appeal to those stalwart U.S. allies in France, Germany and the rest of old Europe. What a guy.