Rummy, You're Doing a Heckuva Job

Now get out

President Bush just concluded his press conference in which he announced that he'd be accepting the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. During the question and answer session, he let something rather interesting slip. When asked about comments made during an interview with some reporters within the Oval Office, he admitted to lying to them, just to get them to change the subject. I can't post exact quotes yet, as no one has posted the transcripts so soon after the press conference, but I will attach them to this post as a comment when they become available.

To paraphrase, he was asked about comments made earlier about whether he'd keep Rumsfeld on staff, and the President replied not only in the affirmative, but that Rumsfeld would retain his Office for as long as President Bush did. Elsewhere in the Q&A, Bush claimed that he was planning, at that same time, to interview Bob Gates for Rummy's position. Seems to me that that was a good place for a "No comment" or Bush's trademark shrug-off of the question, not to lie (and in hyperbole, no less).

My opinion is that Bush never planned to talk to Bob Gates, and in fact hadn't talked to Bob Gates, until today, the 8th, after the election result were clear. Another admission of President Bush was that he did no anticipate any midterm losses for his party, so it stands to reason that he never anticipated letting Rummy leave until it became apparent that they did lose seats. Many seats.

Rumsfeld himself had made comments last week that he would stay in his appointment (one assumes he also meant as long as it pleases the President) even if the Democrats swept Congress during the midterms. Then why did he resign before the results were even confirmed? Were his statements merely an attempt to persuade liberal voters to stay home, to make them think that even a historic turnout wouldn't persuade the Administration to change their course? Or was it simply arrogance on his part, and his firm (yet incorrect) belief that the Republicans would continue to control Congress, as they done for the last twelve years.

In my opinion, all of this smacks of not only arrogance, but a complete lack of an ability to formulate a "Plan B". A wise politician (truthfully, any wise person) should plan ahead for the unfortunate. I think what we see here is that there were no plans for if they lost the election, just as there were no plans for if civil war erupted in Iraq, or if a massive hurricane slammed New Orleans, or any of the dozens of Administration failures over the last six years.