{"id":8294,"date":"2006-08-25T10:17:08","date_gmt":"2006-08-25T14:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8294.html"},"modified":"2006-08-25T10:17:08","modified_gmt":"2006-08-25T14:17:08","slug":"putting-rumsfeld-to-a-no-confidence-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/putting-rumsfeld-to-a-no-confidence-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting Rumsfeld to a ‘no-confidence’ vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m delighted to see that congressional Dems have come up with a fairly clever idea<\/a> — which might put Republicans in an awkward position.<\/p>\n

Campaign strategists seek intraparty consensus by focusing on accountability rather than Iraq troop withdrawals. A “[tag]no-confidence[\/tag]” vote in Pentagon chief, which Democratic lawmakers might offer on defense spending legislation, could embarrass Bush while appealing to Republicans who defend ousting Saddam but criticize war’s execution.<\/p>\n

One House Republican predicts leaders would heed White House urgings to block a vote. But a Republican consultant says some incumbents may embrace idea for distance from war setbacks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It would be a non-binding measure — Bush can fire his [tag]Defense[\/tag] [tag]Secretary[\/tag], but a congressional resolution can’t — but as Raw Story noted<\/a>, this would have the effect of a) punishing the president for allowing Rumsfeld to continue to serve, despite his fiascos; and b) shift the discussion about the war “from troop withdrawals to questions of accountability.”<\/p>\n

It’s also a classic wedge strategy: before the election, just how many congressional Republicans are prepared to publicly announce their confidence in Donald [tag]Rumsfeld[\/tag]?
\n
\nAnd speaking of Rumsfeld, Laura Rozen reported<\/a> this week:<\/p>\n

Bush has put out a quiet feeler to replace Rumsfeld in recent weeks. He was politely turned down by at least one candidate he personally called. Unknown: is this one of many candidates Bush has sounded out? Is there a Bernacke-style search going on quietly in the background?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m delighted to see that congressional Dems have come up with a fairly clever idea — which might put Republicans in an awkward position. Campaign strategists seek intraparty consensus by focusing on accountability rather than Iraq troop withdrawals. A “[tag]no-confidence[\/tag]” vote in Pentagon chief, which Democratic lawmakers might offer on defense spending legislation, could embarrass […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8294","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}