11.08.06
Not the Secretary of Defense You’d Like to Have
Or: Belated Election Present
Donald Rumsfeld was fired today. This is a move that I don’t understand, because it seems like a genuine concession to the American people. That’s weird, because old George sure didn’t think he needed to play to the middle at all up until today. Now he’s talking all about ‘cooperation’ and bipartisanship. Don’t be fooled.
This is still the same guy who said only a week ago:
However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: The terrorists win and America loses.
It still doesn’t make much sense, though, even if Bush is trying to make amends. El Presidente also said last week that he intended to keep Donald around until the end of his term. Why cave now? A month ago, it could have saved a number of Republican Congressional seats. Today, it seems like a too-little, too-late attempt to appease America’s anger at the President’s truly colossal screwup of, well, just about everything. Whatever happened to Bush’s supposedly legendary political savvy? This is a bush-league (no pun intended) flub.
Still, I’m glad Rummy is gone. It’s hard to imagine a more arrogant, incompetent, contemptible fool to be put in charge of our military (even Robert McNamara eventually admitted that he made mistakes in Vietnam). All that I know about Robert Gates is that he was heavily involved in Iran Contra and is another of Papa Bush’s guys. That doesn’t make me particularly optimistic, since Rummy was one of Papa Bush’s guys, too.
