{"id":1716,"date":"2004-05-06T12:25:52","date_gmt":"2004-05-06T17:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/1716.html"},"modified":"2004-05-06T12:25:52","modified_gmt":"2004-05-06T17:25:52","slug":"calls-for-resignation-are-everywhere-but-white-house-says-rumsfelds-staying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/calls-for-resignation-are-everywhere-but-white-house-says-rumsfelds-staying\/","title":{"rendered":"Calls for resignation are everywhere, but White House says Rumsfeld’s staying"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just to follow-up for a moment on an earlier post, it’s not hard to find calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation today. A lot of people are calling for his head.<\/p>\n

On the Hill, Joe Biden wants<\/a> a resignation, so does Tom Harkin<\/a> and John Corzine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thomas Friedman’s New York Times column says Rumsfeld has to go<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If we are going to rebuild our credibility as instruments of humanitarian values, the rule of law and democratization, in Iraq or elsewhere, Mr. Bush must hold his own defense secretary accountable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wants<\/a> Rumsfeld and<\/i> Wolfowitz to go.<\/p>\n

It’s not just Mr. Rumsfeld’s latest fiasco, the botched handling of the investigation of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. <\/p>\n

It’s not just that Mr. Rumsfeld seriously underestimated the number of U.S. troops required for the occupation of Iraq and the potential for American casualties. <\/p>\n

It’s not just that Mr. Rumsfeld seriously overestimated the threat from weapons of mass destruction. <\/p>\n

It’s not just that Mr. Rumsfeld ignored the State Department’s plans for the occupation and relied on private security forces and private companies with no-bid contracts.<\/p>\n

It’s not just that U.S. policy in Iraq has devolved in dangerous ad hocery, with one day’s decision reversed the next day. <\/p>\n

It’s not just that Mr. Rumsfeld had charged around the world insulting key allies. <\/p>\n

It’s the accumulation of all these miscalculations, misconceptions and missteps – and an arrogant inability to admit his mistakes – that require him to step down. If the Defense Department were a corporation, its CEO would be long gone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And yet, Bush won’t even entertain the idea.
\n
\nReuters noted<\/a> this morning that the White House insists Rumsfeld isn’t going anywhere.<\/p>\n

Asked at a news briefing whether Bush wanted Rumsfeld to remain as head of the Defense Department, White House press secretary Scott McClellan replied: “Absolutely. The president greatly appreciates the job that Secretary Rumsfeld is doing.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have a quick follow-up question for McClellan: Why<\/i> does Bush “greatly appreciate” the job Rumsfeld is doing?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just to follow-up for a moment on an earlier post, it’s not hard to find calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation today. A lot of people are calling for his head. On the Hill, Joe Biden wants a resignation, so does Tom Harkin and John Corzine. Thomas Friedman’s New York Times column says Rumsfeld has to go. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}