Actually he was shown the door by the President himself…
WASHINGTON (AP) – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as defense secretary on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses.
President Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.
Asked whether his announcement signaled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops, Bush said, “Well, there’s certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon.”
Bush lavished praise on Rumsfeld, who has spent six stormy years at his post. The president disclosed he met with Gates last Sunday, two days before the elections in which Democrats swept to control of the House and possibly the Senate.
MSNBC reports:
But sources told NBC News’ military analyst Bill Arkin that prior to the election, Vice President Dick Cheney argued with other politicians over whether Rumsfeld should stay. White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and others said Rumsfeld should be removed, the source said. Both sides agreed the decision would be made after the election, when Bush would make the final call based on how Republicans did.
According to the source, Bush agreed Rumsfeld should be removed after seeing election results favoring Democrats. Cheney then lost another argument, protesting Gates’ nomination as Rumsfeld’s replacement.
Looks like these guys are going to get their way…
So Bush finally dumps Rumsfeld after promising just last week to keep him for the next two years!?!?!?
No doubt some of the Republicans who lost last night are fuming about that boneheaded move. If he had dumped Rumsfeld during the summer and shown a willingness to change the course on Iraq the Republicans might have been spared the wipeout they suffered.
Bush…what a genius.
The timing is a suboptimal, to say the least…
So, was this Rove’s promised October surprise? A little late, eh?
Statements above show just how frigging dumb these kind of people are . Oh yeah Bush is going to come out the day before the election and make the changes. Can you say “VETO”? Huh?
That would clearly be what swung it for Bush, Kevin – that picture of the protesters. He must have been thinking “Hell…no, Heavens…if even they say Rummy should go, I’ve got to listen.”
Or maybe it’s because the military just can’t take him anymore and the Army Times has publicly called for him to go.
Or maybe it’s because most Democratic members of Congress are so spineless they can only come up with “Sack Rumsfeld” so Bush is taking the wind out of their cowardly sails. Because without the “Sack Rumsfeld” slogan, people like Hilary Clinton have nothing.
Now Bush has proved he’s not “staying the course”. He’s going to keep killing Iraqis and threatening the rest of us out here in the rest of the world, but hey, he’s got a new defense secretary. Big deal.
Some of us might wonder if he’s trying to head off some of the investigations that would demonstrate his crimes. Clinton isn’t going to expose them – she backed them.
I will give our President credit for finally accepting responsibility for failure..he admitted that as head of the Republican Party yesterday’s Rep. election debacle was his fault..even more confusing was his admission that he purposly mislead reporters last week because he did not want to make Rum’s leaving a “political issue”..
Make no mistake this was not’s Bush’s decesion it was Rove’s..I have noticed a total lack of Rove presense on any news show..
Most who post were are insightful, well versed Republicans. What do you see as the next step for your party? By the way..I repeatedly made the point that Indy’s such as myself would be the difference..it appears we did…
MSNBC: “…when Bush would make the final call based on how Republicans did.”
So Rumsfeld was doing a good job if the Republicans won the election, but a lousy job if the Democrats won?
That isn’t leadership – that’s whoring your principals. What Bush has clearly shown is that corruption in Washington starts at the very top – in the White House.
Bush is a man with a price – we just have to dicker on what the price is on any given day…
I agree with those above who feel this is disappointing timing. Rummy’s effectiveness should not be determined based on election outcome. If he was effective before the election there is no reason to believe that such status should change so suddenly over 24 hours. Is this another Harriet Miers moment where he should have gotten off that horse earlier? It would have been quite understandable before the election for Bush to say we will stay the course in Iraq by referring to establishment of a stable, secure, democratic government and say that a new direction to that end is needed. Exit Rumsfeld. I think it is quite cynical to dismiss Rummy so soon after the election. Strange.
Yep, one week to the day today, president Bush was telling the American people that he wanted Rumsfeld to stay, while at the same time, going through resumes and getting ready for interviews.
It’s just so hard to believe ANYTHING that comes out of this administration.
This proves what type of man Bush reallly is. He doesn’t even care about his own people. It is not late to look through him. His strategy of scaring voers to vote for him worked last time- but it will not work anymore.
Go through his resume here: http://muslimunity.blogspot.com/
I guess you big winners will be happy when our ‘stupid’ chopper pilots start evacuating refugees out of Baghdad’s Green Zone next week. Never learn.
Most likely Rumsfeld could have stayed if he wanted to, given that Bush burned political capital in the week before the election to confirm his support for Runsfeld. But Reumsfeld is a smart man and knows the war in Iraq was lost yesterday, and he doesn’t want to be at his post when that reality becomes apparent to the media. I expect Runsfeld is going back to private business as there’s lots of money to be made selling prayer rugs to Americans.
Crap, I’m all confused…does this mean Bush is an ‘evil genius’ or an ‘idiot’? I get so lost trying to follow the leftist swings between the two.
Does this come under the category of ‘clever enough to fool the entire world into thinking Saddam had WMDs, including throughout the 90s from TX’, ‘orchestrated the 9-11 attacks on his own country with zero evidence’, and ‘stole two elections’…or too stupid to rub two bricks together, unable to speechify clearly, basically – an idiot?
Oh, and can you clarify if his letting/making Rumsfeld go now makes him an ‘evil genius’ or an ‘idiot’ whereas if he had do so a month ago would have put him in the other column?
Little help, anybody?
Now we get to refight the Iran / Contra scandal. Gates was knee deep if not deeper in that mess.
Jeez, somebody pinch me.
OK We Lost… Now what? Do we sit around and whine like democrats or do we start immediately on getting conservative elected and to make the next two years miserable for the Rats!
· These or my Idea’s: (1st Draft, please add your thoughts)
· We question every close race and demand DEMAND recounts!
· We demand investigations on ALL democrats who put money in their freezers, have questionable land deals, put Security documents in their pants, or met with the Russians to “assist” them in discussions with Ronald Regan or most importantly, leaked security information to the Media.
· Boycott, I MEAN BOYCOTT Every damn advertiser who is currently using MSNBC, CNN, CBS,ABC, Etc. (You know who I mean)
· Expose, indict and convict any and all Media “persons” who jeopardized this countries security and our troops for sole the purpose of trying to make the president “Look Bad”
· Track down and hang every damn “Whistle blower” within our government. (No trial- strait to the gallows!)
We cannot, CANNOT take some moral high road that will only lead to the death of what we hold of value and what this country stands for.
The rules have changed and the enemy is among us and we better start fighting like we intend to win in 2008!
We take no prisoners!
First you libs whine because Bush won’t get rid of Rumsfeld. Now, Bush has Rumsfeld step down for the good of us all, and you liberals are bitching about it?? Nothing is going to make you happy, until our nation becomes a socialist slum ruled by “some are more equal than others” moonbats.
It’s laughable that cat and many others in here are not even Americans.
So, when Bush stands by his team, he’s a heartless bastard.
When he makes changes, he’s a traitor.
End result: to the left, any choice made by Bush is wrong.
theE: No, be glad that cat and company aren’t Americans.
MU: do you have the links to when you advocated mudering Bush?
Unfortunately, I think what we are seeing is the kind of typical knee-jerk reaction we see when things go poorly. We’re going to see a period of uncertainty and second guessing as our side tries to come to grips with what happened. I’d prefer that we step back, take a deep breath and think things through before reacting emotionally like this. By trying to quickly stop the bleeding, we only succeed in prolonging it.
Ken
Handing over Rumsfeld’s head less than 24 hours after a Democratic Victory is a signal that he intends to have no backbone and offer no resistence to the Democrats.
SCSI – If Rumsfeld needed to go, why did Bush claim otherwise last week? What changed his mind? His response was after word leaked about the editorials calling for Rumsfeld to go, so it wasn’t that.
So, when Bush stands by his team, he’s a heartless bastard.
When he makes changes, he’s a traitor.
End result: to the left, any choice made by Bush is wrong.
Great point, SCSIwuzzy!
Also worthy of note: The haunting and noticelable lack of Republican whining about ballot-box tampering, rigged Deibold machines, election-place harassment and the trotting out of lawyers. Conversely, the silence on the part of liberals whining about the same thingsafter finally winning an election is also noticeably quiet. No surpirse there.
Now, Bush has Rumsfeld step down for the good of us all, and you liberals are bitching about it??
…
When he makes changes, he’s a traitor.
End result: to the left, any choice made by Bush is wrong.
You guys are funny. Is anyone here bitching about it? Or saying it was wrong?
Crap, I’m all confused…does this mean Bush is an ‘evil genius’ or an ‘idiot’? I get so lost trying to follow the leftist swings between the two.
Let me help you out. “Idiot”.
I doubt you’ve ever heard anyone call Bush a “genius”, evil or otherwise. Except maybe over at Powerline.
Lee,
He needed to go because “Pressed by another reporter on Iraq, Pelosi said President Bush must “signal a change of direction.” She said one good place to start would be to “change the civilian leadership at the Pentagon” – get rid of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in other words.
“That would signal an openness to new, fresh ideas on the subject,” she said. She indicated she’ll discuss that with Bush in future meetings.
Now is time for a change because nothing will get done in the next two years if there is no dialogue between Bush and Pelosi. As I said before, this would not have happened if Republicans kept control of the house. These sort of things happen when power shifts.
Bush is a “genius”. Only a genius could conceive of “companionate conservatism” and win elections with what many Democrats consider an oxymoron slogan. It would be like a Democrat campaigning using the oxymoron “wise liberalism” as their slogan.
It took Bush less then one day to fold, but Bush doesn’t allow polls to drive his agenda does he?
When asked by his own soldiers why they haven’t upped the armor on their vehicles…
“It’s interesting. If you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up.” Yeah, take that soldiers! That pretty much summed it up for me what he thinks of his troops and the effort he wanted to make to protect them as much as possible. Have some more spoiled food. That, and the war would doubtfully last six months. And on ‘Meet the Press’ he knew where the WMDs were. Oops.
You won’t hear me bitching that Bush let him go. It’s one of the best moves he’s made, and long overdue. Later, dude.
Heralder, Bush claimed in his press conference today that he started the ball rolling on this a week ago.
Pelosi made the statement you quoted – when? I believe it was either yesterday or this morning, no?
Your apology is melting under the light of fact-checking, amigo.
Lee,
Yes, she made it today. Bush said he got the ball rolling on this a week ago. “The ball rolling” is a bit of a vague statement. I take it to mean last week he spoke with Rumsfeld and explained that if Democrats gain control of the house he should step down. I would imagine that’s not something he’s going to break a week prior to the election. I think he was planning ahead…hence why this happened so fast.
There’s nothing particularly cloak and dagger about this Rumsfeld resignation/dismissal, Lee. Its not too complicated.
Viya con Dios Mr. Rumsfeld, thanks for your service. Rest well in your retirement knowing America is a better place because of you.
My God, the terrorists just won the election, and Rummy cuts and runs. What kind of message dose that give the terrorists?
Bush is a “genius”. Only a genius could conceive of “companionate conservatism” and win elections
That supports Rove being a genius, not Bush.
Hey he was for Donny before he was against him! What a fucking gutless flip flopper. Typical Republiccan. So here’s my question for you. Will any of you who were on here sooooooo sure that the Dems were going to lose do the right thing and just admit you were wrong? Anyone worthy of a little bit of respect in here? And if you and Georgie boy were wrong when you swore up and down you were going to win this election, isn’t it just possible that you’re wrong about the war in Iraq?
3 years too late!!
His “you go to war with the army you have” line is one of the greatest insults to American soldiers in the history of this country.
Putting a target on their backs in an unwinnable situation in a place they should never be is the other one.
Expect Cheney to resign Late Jan. It would be funny Newt or Condi gets selected as next VP and then has 2 years in the job before the ’08 electons. The dems would keel over.
Yeah, wrong about Iraq… immediate pullout! And when it backfires and chaos reigns, we’ll just blame Bush! What a novel idea!!!
Seamus, I’ll accept your challenge. I thought the Democrats would gain the majority in the House, but would remain the minority in the Senate. I was wrong – I admit it. (I”m also pretty happy that I was right about the Republicans holding the White House too).
Seamus
I was wrong in thinking the dems wouldnt win the election.
However I do not believe I was wrong in thinking that going to war in Iraq was absolutely the right thing to do.
That being said, when I saw the Dems won control of Congress I was reminded of something Bill Clinton said in response the question (and I paraphrase)
“what did you think when you realized you had won?”
“Well I felt sorta like a dog who chases parked cars…. and I caught one”
It is easy to sit on the sidelines and throw peanuts and say “we’re not in charge so we dont have to come up with something” it isnt so easy when you are the one in charge.
To give you an analogy.
I had just reported to a new unit 2 weeks prior to this incident. A junior soldier who had been in the unit for 6 years was giving a class on how to tear down and set up some equipment. He knew what he was doing due to his experience but due to his rank, some of those who slightly outranked him but didnt have the experience in the unit or on the equipment werent listening to well.
As the senior NCO I observed the junior soldier getting flumoxed and saw a disaster brewing. I told the junior soldier to put everyone on break for a few minutes to give him a chance to collect his thoughts. Meanwhile I went to see the warrant who had been there for 6 years as well. I told him the problem and he said “No problem, I got it covered”.
The warrant officer went out and called for everyone to fall into formation. He then explained that the junior soldier had been called to go to orderly room and that I (who had been there 2 weeks and knew very little about that type of system) would take over the training. He then turned the soldiers over to me.
I learned a few things that day. The most important thing being: Dont be so quick to sit back and throw stones if you arent prepared to get up and fix it yourself.
There sure are a lot of anti-American overseas posters in here.
Maybe, but that supports Bush being a genius for employing Rove.
Maybe, but that supports Bush being a genius for employing Rove.
Except you got that backwards.
Heralder spoketh: “There’s nothing particularly cloak and dagger about this Rumsfeld resignation/dismissal, Lee. Its not too complicated.”
Oh I agree – no cloak and dagger, just deception and deceit. He lied to the American public a week ago – stating Rumsfeld would stay in place for two years. But hey – it’s ok for the President to lie before, during, and after election if it’s politically motivated, right?
No mystery (or surprise) that he wasn’t telling the truth. I’m not sure the man knows the meaning of the word.
Ask a simple question of the Anti-Americans like Muslim, John and Lee and they cut and run. Debating you foreigners is WAY too easy.
Well I respect you guys for manning up and admitting you were wrong.
They will never own up to being wrong. They’ll get beheaded and they’ll still be thinking they’re right until their head stops rolling.
“does this mean Bush is an ‘evil genius’ or an ‘idiot’? I get so lost trying to follow the leftist swings between the two.”
I can clarify this for you Falze…. Bush is an idiot. And a first class loser.
Some on the left (and the right as well) get confused between the man and the office. They look at the actions taken by this administration and assume it is coming from the president, rather than seeing it as coming from the many individuals that make up the administration.
As a figurehead president, most of what comes out of this administration is actually coming from others and not from Bush. Since they all know that Bush is a huge idiot, they make sure he is given carefully controlled information. Every effort is made to limit the damage he can do to the policies and directions that come from those that actually have half a brain.
Hope this helps!
“· Track down and hang every damn “Whistle blower” within our government.”
Yeah? Well I accuse YOU of being a whistle blower Vegas Vic. Give us your address and we can be at your house with a rope in a matter of minutes. I am sure you will understand when we ignore your pathetic little cries of innocence.
Tell me Vic – why do you hate the constitution so much? Why are you so opposed to the rule of Law? What is it about America and all that it stands for that fills you with so much hatred?
Tell me Vic, if we live in the land of the Free and the home of the Brave, what are YOU still doing here?
see ya, loser. :p