If Rumsfeld quits, Bush may breathe a ‘titanic sigh of relief’

April 19, 2006

President [tag]Bush[/tag] can’t say enough about how much he supports Defense Secretary [tag]Donald Rumsfeld[/tag]. Rumsfeld is “doing a fine job,” Bush says. He’s “transforming the military” and “helping us fight a war on terror.” Just yesterday, the president concluded, “I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld.”

But the New York Daily News’ Thomas DeFrank, whose White House sources are quite solid, said [tag]Bush[/tag] isn’t nearly as confident about Rumsfeld’s service when the president speaks candidly with close allies.

In moments of quiet candor, Bush has vented to confidants that much of the advice he got from [tag]Rumsfeld[/tag] about how Iraq would play out after the 2003 invasion was wrong.

He also knows that some military brass and congressional mandarins he respects believe Rummy should have been sacked long ago.

Presidential friends say that if after a decent interval Rumsfeld expressed a willingness to retire to his New Mexico ranch and Eastern Shore estate, Bush would smother him in heartfelt accolades, award him another Presidential Medal of Freedom and breathe a titanic sigh of relief.

No wonder the [tag]White House[/tag] is so mad about several retired [tag]generals[/tag] calling for Rumsfeld’s ouster — Bush would like to see him quit, but the generals’ pressure has forced the president to stand behind his man.

For what it’s worth, Bush isn’t the only one who’s expressing concerns about Rumsfeld privately.

A Senate [tag]Republican[/tag] aide said that despite expressions of support for Mr. Rumsfeld by some Republican senators, many other members expressed deep concern privately.

“The nervousness here is with a figure as controversial as Rumsfeld at the head of a war that’s declining in popularity, that becomes a real political problem for members who are up for re-election this fall,” said the aide, who insisted on anonymity because he had been told not to discuss senators’ private conversations.

With Congress in recess, the aide said, he knew of no organized effort among Senate Republicans to make their concerns public or to take them to the White House. But the aide said he expected discussions to intensify when senators returned next week.

A few brave souls aren’t afraid to express these concerns publicly. Consider Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), for example.

“The concern I’ve had is, at a very dangerous time, (the) secretary of defense does not command the respect and confidence of our men and women in uniform,” [tag]Hagel[/tag] said.

“There is a real question about his capacity to lead at this critical time,” he said.

That seems to be an increasingly popular sentiment.

Our 5 year old president informed us today that HE is the decider and HE decides who goes. And besides chicken george bush will never admit that he made a mistake. Another trait of 5 year olds.

  • So Melvin R. Laird, SecDef from 1969 to 1973 writes in the Post today that since He had no trouble getting honest advice from Generals, clearly Zinni and other Generals calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation are off base.

    This, friends, is called a Freudian Generalization. You think that the conditions that apply to you (wanting to have sex with your mother, say) must apply to everybody. So Laird assumes that Rumsfeld gets the same straight forward advice he got. Which kinds of ignores the point made by Batiste et al that Rumsfeld has broken the process in the Pentagon.

    And of course, Laird couldn’t write his essay without including the “..the enemy does not understand or appreciate reasoned public debate. It is preceived as a sign of weakness and lack of resolve.” argument. Well eff that Laird. I don’t have to give up my rights because your boy Bush dragged us into a war with Iraq and Rummy decided that ten years of planning was a bunch of trash and the war could be fought and won on the cheap.

    Blah!

  • Nah, this is just yet another trickle-down bit of information from the Leaker-in-Chief that Rove probably thought would be useful as a token sign that Bush really, really would like to do something substantial in terms of shaking things up in his administration. Yeah, right. Hell, they can’t even replace John Snow in Treasury because no one in their right mind wants the job now.

  • “People have been calling on Rummy to resign since BEFORE the war. Including veterans of the first gulf war.” – Gridlock

    Nice link Grid!

    Oh, if you did not see Monday’s John Stewart on Comedy Central, see the pod cast. He had a wonderful send up of Rumsfeld answering the Generals.

  • “Support OurTroops – Dump Rumsfeld.”

    Now that’s a magnetic decal whose times has come.

  • If Rummy goes, the Senate has to approve his replacement. Their hearings would probably include an airing of Rummy’s many failings, and I’m sure the thought of that has Bush bursting blood vessels.

  • Once again, the most powerful man on the planet, the Decider, is but a prisoner of his circumstances and of the failings of those around him. And, once again, the driving concerns are not about the strategic and policy errors that underlie the “unpopularity” of the war in Iraq, it is the political fall out that results from the public’s being fed up with incompetence and lying. BushWorld is unraveling because mere sloganeering isn’t cutting it anymore. Can’t just throw a “Victory is at Hand” backdrop behind Dubya these days and call it good. Rumsfeld can be toxic to our men and women in uniform and no bloody problem. But once the toxicity spills over on the GOP, heads must at least look like they COULD roll as the Decider expresses public confidence and private displeasure.

  • beep52 – I saw a comment by one of Andrew Sullivan’s to that very affect. The hearsing to replace Rummy would be tres ugly.

  • The reality is the Iraq war can not be won by a force of any size or by an expenditure of any amount… Bushit and Rumsfeld have done more than merely bungle a war and damage the Army; they have destroyed the foundation of the post-Cold War world security system, which was the accepted authority of American military power. The fuss over whether we were misled by Dumbya into war— is not questionable anymore— Dumbya lied. This lie can not stands in the way of a deeper debate that should start quite soon and ask this question: Now that Bushit and Rumsfeld have screwed up the only successful known model for world security, what do we do now that Iran is pursuing nuclear technology for defense purposes?

  • Aw, this will be a moot point soon.
    After all, the insurgency in Iraq is in its “Last Throes,” right?

    And those tax cuts have really helped the economy, gas prices are because we can’t drill in ANWR, Bush tried every diplomatic tool available with Iraq (no, he had not decied to go to war!), global warming is a hoax, abstinence education only works, Bush got a mandate from his landslide win in 2004, the people are behind Social Security Personal Accounts, we found the WMDs in Iraq, illegal aliens are mostly criminals, Valerie Plame really wasn’t a covert agent, Bush was forced to start the war in Iraq because Sadaam would’t let the inspectors back in, Bush won the 2000 election fair and square, everyone knows that Republican politicians are more honest than anyone, and, and……

    Come on, clap louder, Dammit!

  • I think that beep52 and ET are onto the right track. If Rumsfeld goes then the entire rationale for the war will come unraveled and Bush will be finished politcally. Most likely, the only way out of the corner that they have painted themselves into is to start a war with one of Iraq’s near neighbors.

  • I just read this over at Think Progress. It’s an excerpt of an interview with Tim Russert on the Don Imus show.

    “And then, someone very close to the President said to me, you know, he won’t fire Rumsfeld because it would be the equivalent of firing himself. He can’t acknowledge that it was such a big mistake, in so many ways. And so Rumsfeld will stay. And that’s the decision that the President has made and I think Rumsfeld will stay and try to see this through.”

  • I think Rummy’s value to Bush right now is that he’s the man to blame the war on — not yet, but when there’s no alternative but to admit that the war is lost.

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