This is only a step in the right direction.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday that he has “no confidence” in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfeld’s handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.
McCain, speaking to the Associated Press in an hour-long interview, said his comments were not a call for Rumsfeld’s resignation, explaining that President Bush “can have the team that he wants around him.”
There’s an obvious disconnect between the first and second points that McCain needs to resolve. McCain, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, believes Rumsfeld’s term as Defense Secretary has been a disaster, which of course is true. McCain endorsed and supports the war in Iraq, but thinks Rumsfeld has fought the war poorly. But McCain still won’t take the next step and say Rumsfeld needs to be replaced. Why not?
If McCain believes this is just a situation in which the president should be allowed to choose his own advisors, he’s missing the significance of the bigger picture here. Rumsfeld is not a White House aide offering Bush advice about military matters; he’s the architect of a disastrous war and the man who continues to approve all decisions on troop levels in Iraq.
McCain has an opinion that he’s willing to share with the media. As a politician, that’s pretty normal. But McCain is also a senior member of the committee that exercises Senate oversight of the military and helps shape the Pentagon’s budget. For McCain to say that he has no confidence in Rumsfeld’s ability to do his job, but he’s willing to stand by and take no position on whether the ineffectual Pentagon chief continues to do that job, suggests that McCain sees himself as some kind of passive observer of military affairs. He’s not.
Either McCain believes Rumsfeld should stay on as Defense Secretary or he doesn’t. He shouldn’t be afraid of some necessary “straight talk” here.