President Bush is rebuffing the nation in clinging to Rumsfeld.
Someone remind the President that his Secretary of Defense presided over behaviors that led to the image below, and to far worse:
The calls for Rumsfeld to depart will only intensify now. Unity among the ranks of active duty and retired generals can’t be re-established under current management.
The President should give Rumsfeld a big party, a medal or two, and send him off — with a successor who will re-establish confidence in defense decision-making.
The President should dust off his MBA work and realize that if he wants to send a signal of change, he must dump at least three of five people: his chief of staff, his vice president, his closest political advisor, his national security advisor, and his defense secretary.
So far, Andy Card is gone. To fill out the “I’m a new and different Bush” card, Bush must distance himself from some combination of Rove, Hadley, Cheney, and/or Rumsfeld.
I’m guessing that “the decider” changes his mind soon. If I’m wrong, Democrats running in 2006 are getting a huge gift.
— Steve Clemons
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