October 2, 2006
THE WAR'S A DIVERSION:
Should He Stay? (Bob Woodward, 10/02/06, Washington Post)
After President Bush won reelection in 2004, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. got out an 8 1/2 -by-11 spiral notebook, half an inch thick, with a blue cover. He called it his "hit-by-the-bus" book -- handy in case someone in the administration suddenly had to be replaced. He had intentionally used a student notebook, something he had bought himself, so it wouldn't be considered a government document or presidential record that might someday be opened to history. It was private and personal.A second term traditionally leads to personnel changes. The question was whether one of them would involve Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.
It takes Mr. Woodward the length of his long story to get to the reason the President kept Mr. Rumsfeld and he doesn't even recognize it then. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 2, 2006 8:17 AM
And excerpts like this remind me why it's mostly a waste of time to read anything by professional journalists:
""Many of them say, 'Oh, it's Rumsfeld,' as though I'm sitting around with a black box figuring all this out. And anyone who knows me or watched me do anything knows that I don't do it that way. I come here to this job knowing that there's no one smart enough to do this job." So he relied on "smart people," he said, and on "advice from multiple sources."
But half a dozen of the generals and civilians who worked most closely with Rumsfeld made it clear in interviews that it was Rumsfeld who was making the decisions."
Of course Mr. Rumsfeld makes the decisions. He's the boss and it's his job to make decisions!
Posted by: Rick T. at October 2, 2006 10:59 AMHowever, I will bet that, assuming the Repubs hold their own in the elections, Rumsfeld will resign between the election and the end of the year.
Six years is a strong Cabinet term, his "transformation" is well under way, the war is going... OK at least. It might be a good time for some freshening.
If the Dems win a house, he will stay, out of his own and Bush's innate stubborness.
Heard it here first.
Posted by: Andrew X at October 2, 2006 11:13 AMHe's not going until the transformation is irreversible.
Posted by: oj at October 2, 2006 11:33 AMI'm betting Rummy will exceed even W in the History books.
He's the US's Samuel Pepys.
Posted by: Pepys at October 2, 2006 11:43 AMNo one ever called Rummy a moron.
Posted by: erp at October 2, 2006 11:54 AM