The president: Rumsfeld now, Rumsfeld tomorrow, Rumsfeld forevah.
For those not in the know, Gregory Djerejian probably hates Rumsfeld more than you do. Or to phrase my point as an SAT analogy question, Rumsfeld is to him what the Terry Schiavo bill is to John Cole.
Jon H
Shouldn’t that be Cindy Sheehan, instead of the Schiavo bill?
Jay C
Uhh, Tim…
While the link to Greg Djerejian’s blog is definitely appreciated (Belgravia Dispatch was a quality foreign-affairs blog even before Greg turned against the Admin.!) – he doesn’t actually have any commentary about Bush’s “heckuva a job, Rummy” idiocy posted – just a few asides in the comments thread.
Not that things will remain so, I don’t think: Greg D.’s attitude about this Adminstration’s incompetence goes orders of magnitude beyond “scathing”: John Cole on Cindy Sheehan looks tame by comparison.
sglover
Rumsfeld has to stay. I don’t think the Cheney administration relishes the thought of confirmation hearings for a replacement. In addition, there’s that whole Rumsfeld-&-Cheney, Nixon White House intimacy thing. Remember, Rumsfeld is one of the “grown-ups” who’s supposed to chaperone the Idiot Prince through his Presidency.
greg djerejian
“Or to phrase my point as an SAT analogy question, Rumsfeld is to him what the Terry Schiavo bill is to John Cole.”
Heh, as they say. That’s a pretty good analogy Tim. Truth be told, I wasn’t too excited by the Schiavo follies either, though yes, Bush’s inability to relieve Rumsfeld was a (if not the) tipping point. The sad reality is that Bush apparently does not think himself capable of serving ably as CINC w/out Rummy/Cheney there to hand-hold him (and he might be right about that, but you nevertheless hope against hope POTUS would at least have the basic common sense/survival instinct to find more capable adult supervisers than those two given the mega-fiasco they’ve presided over). I fear that this utter dependence on these two men is the ugly reality behind his inability to fire Rumsfeld, and detach himself more from a discredited Cheney. Or, perhaps equally alarming, he really does think they’re doing a swell job on the foreign policy front! Or a combo of both? God knows anymore…
jcricket
Greg, have you ever heard the phrase “A’s hire A’s and B’s hire C’s”? That seems very operable with Bush and company.
When you’re an “A”, you’re not afraid of other smart people, even if they might challenge your authority or opinions. You figure that another “A” will be very productive and elevate the level of work being done, therefore alleviating you from carrying the burden on your own.
When you’re a “B”, you’re afraid that anyone “smarter than you” will expose you as a fraud, or just make you look bad. So you higher the “Cs” figuring it keeps your position “safe”.
It’s either that or Bush really is a “C” or a “D”, and doesn’t know any better.
jcricket
And what kind of name is “Djerejian” anyway? Sounds foreign. Probably French. :-)
Tsulagi
Way too charitable.
Perry Como
David Gergen (moonbat, hippy, liberal, leftist) said that the SecDef job probably hinges on the Dems taking the house. If they do, look for Rummy to be replaced by Baker. If not, Rummy stays the course and commits more troops. Interesting prediction.
Jay C
I thought our Decider-in-Chief had already given Secy. Rumsfeld the Big Thumbs-Up for the rest of his term : hey, maybe Dubya ain’t so dim after all: he may have finally noticed that the wolves stop to devour those who get thrown off the sled…. Heckuva job, Rummy!