The talking heads on MSNBC are claiming that Rumsfeld is stepping down and will be replaced with Robert Gates.
Kinda hard to hear the announcer at the White House with the protestors chanting ‘Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Good bye.’
This post is in: Military
The talking heads on MSNBC are claiming that Rumsfeld is stepping down and will be replaced with Robert Gates.
Kinda hard to hear the announcer at the White House with the protestors chanting ‘Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey, Good bye.’
Comments are closed.
Jackie
It’s all over the news stations now. Wow! And Tester just took Montana.
Louise
Ok, very good news if Rumsfeld goes. Better news if (and I feared Tim would be right about this) Lieberman doesn’t get offered the job. I know next to nothing about Gates. Is he rational?
Andrew
I give it a 75% chance that Lieberman will get offered the job, and a 99% chance that he’ll take it.
Louise
Hilarious. Gates’ Wikipedia page has already been updated with the nomination news.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Good riddance.
OK, if it is Lieberman leading the Pentagon’s Joe-enerals, and Conn.’s GOP governor appoints a GOP senator, which sitting Republican senator switches parties (or goes independent, at the least)?
People like being on the winning team. The Republicans, they are not winners. Therefore…
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Missed the Gates part.
Never mind!
chopper
joe fought tooth-and-nail for his senate seat, why would he give all that up (plus committee assignments) for a 2-year stint as secdef under a lame-duck president looking at an assload of house investigations, tasked with cleaning up rummy’s mess? who in their right mind wants that job?
yet another jeff
WTF? This after Bush said “Rumsfeld Forever” just last week??
Another damned Aggie? Well, at least he graduated, unlike the wingnut the shrub sent to NASA.
Mary
Uh-oh. I can hear Bush now on my radio. He’s talked to Dem and Repub leadership. He shares a large part of the responsibility for the loss. Will work with Dems and Independents on issues. Spoke with Lieberman, Pelosi, others.
Gosh. He’s sharing decorators with Pelosi so her office can look nice.
Intends to work with Congress in a bi-partisan way. Invites them to discuss important work for this year and next year. Clear message from voters to be bi-partisan.
The children. The environment. Yadda.
Vote showed displeasure with lack of progress in Iraq, but believe most and the government don’t want to settle for defeat.
Takes protecting country seriously, as does Rumsfeld. He and Rummy have chatted and agree that it’s time for new guy in Defense. Tongue bath for Rumsfeld.
As Louise said above, he’s asked Bob Gates to serve as leader — woohoo! Take THAT, Lieberman!
Andrew
Damn you wikipedia! I chose Lieberman, and you had to go and pick Gates.
Andrew
Ahem. Asked and answered.
demimondian
Holy Joe has huge leverage with either party right now — he is an independent who holds the balance of power in the Senate all by himself. Literally, on a party-line vote, Joe Lieberman chooses whether the Dems win or the ‘Pubs win.
I can’t see why he’d ever take Secretary of Defense over that kind of power.
PeterJ
Did Bush just say that “our enemies shouldn’t rejoice” and “our troops shouldn’t be doubtful” regarding that the Democrats won…
Richard 23
Awww, I thought Santorum was going to be tapped for the job!
Zifnab
No no. Lieberman takes over Cheney’s spot after he shots himself in the face while bird hunting. Then RI goes Red with a Republican Senator and we’re back up shit creek again.
Vlad
Ding, dong, the witch is dead!
Mary
Bush: “I thought we were going to be fine yesterday. Shows you what I know.” Heh.
chopper
rhode island red?
Andrew
Didn’t you hear? Santorum for SCOTUS.
fwiffo
Jeeze. Today feels like getting a blowjob on Christmas morning.
tBone
Am I a cut and runner? I guess so. Was the President full of shit last week when he said I had done a fantastic job? You bet. Do I wish this Gates fella good luck? Hard to say.
chopper
by santa!
Punchy
I take that to mean he’s DONE working with Republicans. For good measure, methinks.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
The new CW: Dad is taking back the family business from the layabout son.
Andrew
Just close your eyes and pretend it’s Santorum’s dog.
Mary
Some Suzanne (??) chick asked him a loaded question about how he could work with Pelosi after she dissed him royally. His answer is surprisingly calm and sensible: so what? Things get said during campaigns. Can’t hold grudges. Election is over, and it’s time to govern. He’s off to talk with her further and they’re going to work together.
Punchy
?
Can we buy a proper noun here, please?
Thanks.
matt
Yes. Sigh.
Steve
The only criteria for a Defense Secretary are that they be willing to acknowledge reality in Iraq and that they can be realistic about the prospects for success there. We’ll see what we get. Bush isn’t exactly known for surrounding himself with people who deliver hard truths.
mycfile
Re: “Swingman” Lieberman
Knowing NOTHING substantial about the Senators from Maine (aside from their moderate Republican leanings), do you think either or both might be swayed to the (I) column in return for seniority/commitee chairs?
AkaDad
Now the troops have something to cheer about today. The Dems winning and Rumsfield stepping down in shame.
Foobar
Rove/Bush is truly an idiot. Had Rumsfeld been fired two months ago, the Reps would very likely have retained the Senate and the House shellacking would have been milder. How many Rep Senators and Congressmen were sacrificed on the altar of Bush’s recalcitrance?
Pooh
mycfile, on that note, what about Spectre? Arlen is retiring, and I can just about see him delivering a giant FU for all the bitchslaps he’s received…
ThymeZone
Oh, for a minute there, I thought you were quoting George Bush ….
Davebo
Ought to be an interesting confirmation hearing in the Senate eh?
Zifnab
Maybe they’ll try to squeek in a quicky-confirmation before January. That’ll be fun to watch.
Davebo
And according to Red State…
Well, ya just gotta see it for yourselves. Turns out Bush was an idiot all along.
Who’d have thunk it?
I blame John.
caroline
I’m glad to see Rumsfeld go. However, is this replacement any better? He sounds like another idiotic retread.
Andrew
Does this mean that Bolton is also a goner?
(I think he can be re-recesses appointed but won’t get paid.)
Gold Star for Robot Boy
My GF said Bush just blamed the American voters. Something about how he thought they valued national security, but they have said otherwise. Anyone catch this?
The Other Steve
It’s funny.
President Bush claiming Rumsfeld was going to stay on is probably what caused them to lose so badly in the election.
Yet on his press conference he said he had to say Rumsfeld was staying because he didn’t want to interject politics into the military decisions.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
But he’s a retread from the Bush 41 Administration, which is a big deal. The grown-ups are succeeding at seizing the wheel.
Dave
MT was just called for Tester by the AP.
Gold Star for Robot Boy
If I’m a Repub who lost last night, I am furious at Bush for this.
Tsulagi
Gee, wasn’t it just yesterday Bushy was saying Rummy would stay forever? Flip-flop? Naw, of course not. He never said Rummy would stay another two years. Tony Snow will tell you heard it wrong.
Don’t know anything about Gates. Wonder if they offered the job to Colin Powell. Being a soldier/politician, knowing the Pentagon and the people there, he could have gotten up to speed quickly. But with this administration, Powell, the only one with any credibility and integrity, he was always an outsider.
Krista
Evidently, there just aren’t enough tissues to go around at RedState, with all this tearful drama.
t. jasper parnell
Nancy Pelosi: Democrats are not about getting even; they are about helping Americans get ahead.
Full steam baby.
Pooh
I’m not sure about this – one can make a case that there would have been a “blood-in-the-water” effect which overcame any gains from changing the course. To my mind the “we were never ‘stay the course'” was a far bigger blunder, because deep down, any honest person would have to recognize at that point that Jr. needed to give back the car keys, as he wasn’t driving on the same road as the rest of us, (with Rummy as Dr. Emmet Brown assuring him that “where we’re going, we don’t need roads…”)
tBone
I hope so. I can’t see how he could possibly be worse than Rumsfeld, anyway.
VidaLoca
On the other hand, with the size of that group they can all probably hide cozily under the same bed.
capelza
I went to RedState…this was a response to an independent telling them why they had lost said independents (that intrusion into people’s private lives on social issues thing, etc…could have been John Cole under a nym.)
Irony isn’t big over there, is it?
Perry Como
Great, now I have to go get gay married and have an abortion. THANKS AMERICA!
DoubtingThomas
Hmmmmmmm… No Darrell?????
Pooh
OT Bleg, anyone found video of Harold Ford’s concession speech? Dude has game, and will be back – the talking heads LOVE HIM now.
Andrew
That’s still a fair amount of crystal meth to get thrown out.
Perry Como
He could be a Dhimmicrat.
Face
that really is a great fucking idea. Powell regains his respect and moxie lost after the UN Speech debacle, the military gets a real solider and good listener, and above all, he’s a moderate, at best.
Zifnab
They’ve really turned a corner with their new Defense Secretary.
Perry Como
I’m surprised they aren’t suggesting Kissinger.
ThymeZone
Apparently Gates is an old Iran Contra guy, a Bush Mafia made man.
Good. I respect competance.
Ahem.
tBone
I’m surprised they aren’t suggesting McNamara.
Pb
Zifnab,
Yeah, I’m so not surprised–“Involvement in the Iran-Contra Scandal” is practically a job requirement in that administration. The only question is, was Ollie North their second choice, or did he already turn down the position?
Richard 23
Boo hoo. Yet another traitor:
You’re either with us or against us, RedStaters.
Boohoo, I don’t like him anymore. Sniffle. Snork.
numbskull
Now let’s think about that. See, Rummy and Cheney are Bush 41/Reagan retreads also. So is Negroponte. So is Wolfowitz. So is John Bolton. So is [fill in the blank]…
Get the picture? NONE of these people is worthwhile.
Hell, Gates was knee-deep in Iran-Contra. Remember that? That was where the Reagan retreads illegally sold military equipment to Iran (!) to illegally support the Contras. Oopsies, pardons all around.
So, I agree with you when you say the adults are seizing the wheel if you mean the adults who know how to lie, cheat, and steal and actually get away with it.
Rick Taylor
Phew!
All I can say is, it’s abou time.
–Rick Taylor
Zifnab
He’ll be back. What else is he going to do? Vote Democrat?
Richard 23
Damn, Pb, I was going to suggest Ollie North too. How about Admiral Poindexter then? Negroponte’s already busy.
What other Iran/Contra figures aren’t already working in the Administration that could take Rummy’s desk?
Krista
Wow. You guys must have had some REAL screwups, if Rummy’s the best you’ve had.
Dave
He liked the prescription drug thing? Oh my gawd. How can you call yourself a conservative when you support one of the most anti-capitialiscic pieces of legislation every passed?
Rummy the best Secy the country has ever seen? HAHAHA On man, that’s rich.
capelza
Speaking of Iran-Contra…how about that Daniel Ortega? That has to give someone chest pains.
Jay
Meanwhile Rumsfeld is singing: “Gonna walk before they make me run…”
Question: Why would Bush install another person with no combat experience as SoD? Forgive me for being radical but now more than ever we really need a person who has actually fought in an actual war. Or a frickin’ angel because it’s gonna take a series of miracles to fix this mess.
By fix I mean establish stabilize Iraq, beat the Taliban until it stops moving, shore up the rather FUBARed military structure and prepare the next mission. Oh, if someone could fetch Osama bin Laden (remember him?) that would be groovy too.
Perry Como
Sorry moonbat. Poindexter is busy heading up Total Information Awareness, making sure your terrorist loving ass isn’t giving aid and comfort to the enemy, aka Democrats.
jcricket
This is a really important part of this election. Here’s my take.
1) Democrats didn’t win because “conservatives” stayed home (by that I mean Republican party true believers, not John Cole & Andy Sullivan’s “classic conservativism”). There were tons of voters, on both sides, this election (good all around thing to have happen).
2) Democrats didn’t win because they ran conservatives. Ford even lost.
3) Republicans didn’t win a single open seat or governorship from Dems, no matter who they ran, no matter which state.
4) Republicans have now all-but-purged their party, nationally, of the moderates. John is right that they may go one of two directions after this.
Democrats won by picking up independents and moderates and GOTV for liberals and progressives. If we can keep the first two groups, and keep pushing things that make it easier for people to continue voting (vote-by-mail, felon-re-enfranchisement) the GOP will never win again. I say this because of the “GOP adverse selection” related to #4 above. The moderates leave, and the GOP ends up running farther to the right, because the only people who voted for the GOP in droves are the righties and far righties. Those arch conservatives will control the primary and the state-level parties.
tBone
He shouldn’t be hard to find – he’s probably measuring drapes with Nancy Pelosi right now.
demkat620
Here’s a number that might ease your worries about Holy Joe. Repubs have 21 seats up in ’08. And they ain’t all in the safe south. Wonder what message Susie Collins and John Sunnunu and Norm Coleman took away from last nights Northeast debacle. Bush is gonna have problems from the left and the right in the next congress. They are not gonna cover for him anymore.
searp
The president looked and sounded chagrined, beaten, and confused in the press conference. I used to swear at the TV because I couldn’t stand the smirk and the one-of-a-kind accent. Now I wonder if he is up to the next two years. Really. He looked really bad.
Pooh
That’s a good point, though I think “never win again” is a little strong (paging Tom Delay’s permanent majority…though maybe he was just talking about cell block E…) My thought is that it will take at most two more election cycles for the fringers to be marginalized to the point where a lot of the “conservative dem” types who won yesterday split and form the core of a reconstituted GOP, which John will love. I mean, Heath Shuler, to throw a dart at the map, shouldn’t really be a Democrat, in a sane system.
Of course, all bets are off if the GOP primary continue to be dominated by theocons and/or club for growthers (a good point I saw was thanking CFG for making the GOP spend so much time and money on the RI primary, where Chaffee still lost…)
les
Bummer.
Punchy
More like the Red State guys just have some really good drugs…
Anyone else worried that jcricket’s posts are becoming quite Al Maviva-esque?
Richard 23
Uh oh, the Sandinista Daniel Ortega was elected President of Nicaragua? Time to start up the death squads again and bring the Contras out of mothballs or Central and South America are gonna go commie.
Strange how things repeat themselves. I keep reading that the Democratic Congress is going to force the US into a surrender just like back in 1974.
We could have won Vietnam if only….
We could have won Iraq if only….
Is Gates going to be confirmed by the lame duck congress? Will he be recess appointed? Will there be resistance to confirm an Iran-Contra crony?
What about Bolton whose term ends in January I think. Is the new Senate likely to confirm him? (As if.)
Hmmmm. Questions, questions.
Pooh
I always liked Al, so I’ll respond by saying “you say that like it’s a bad thing.”
Perry Como
Looks like Bob Gates came back just in time…
Krista
Of course that horse’s arse is confused. He’s surrounded himself with yes-men (and women) for the last 6 years, and doesn’t pay any attention to news or the polls. As far as he knew, everything was going peachy-keen.
Krista
More like really bad drugs, if they just make you weepy and delusional…
Punchy
I think Gates is going to start selling weapons to the Contras to fund the rebels in Iran.
Proud Liberal
Spealking of the erstwhile commenter Al Maviva, has anybody seen him lately? Stormy? sub-par? bucketboy? where are all the bush toadies these days?
The Other Steve
Maybe if those redstate guys could actually win elections, they wouldn’t feel so bad.
The Other Steve
Where’s Darrell when you want to have an argument in good faith about how this was really a setback for the Democratic moonbats?
ThymeZone
It seems to me that the Republicans are turning into the party of I Hate Bush.
Why are they so negative? Why don’t they have a plan for victory? Is hating Bush all they can do?
No wonder they can’t win elections.
Pb
Al-Maviva-esque? Doesn’t that at least require some utterly useless and obscure historical military reference / parallel / bit of trivia, possibly relating to the Roman empire?
Perry Como
Damn you. I wanted to use that line.
Tim in SF
Why now? Six years of flubbing… why today? This White House doesn’t do anything by accident. Do you think, perhaps, this move was made to get the conversation off the Dem sweep of the country, back onto what this President is doing to “win” the war?
Baby Jane
The level of activity that we see today from Moonbat Democrats, I think, will clearly decline. I think they’re in the last throes, if you will, of the majority.
Andrew
Al hasn’t lost a thing. It’s just that he’s doing it at the home mediocre, Ann Althouse’s blog.
Soon, he WILL write a 10,000 word blog comment.
caroline
I saw it. Bush said something like “I thought the American people would understand about taxes and security.” So I guess we just aren’t smart enough to understand these issues.
Pooh
Seriously, lay off of Al in his absence. Unlike many of the rightie types here, he tended to be substantive, if wordy (like Thyme can complain about other people talking too much…) If all of our righties were like Al and OCSteve…
BTW, considering that the last ditch GOP efforts were all about “rallying the base” let me be the nth to sneer “All Your Base Are Belong to Pelosi”
Zifnab
Wow. When you’ve lost God’s vote, then you know you’re in trouble.
Perry Como
Next thing you know she’ll be “in ur internets stealing ur toobs”
Davebo
Why? Because he’s religious?
Pro Head Start, Anti NCLB.
Pro Environment, against selling off federal lands
Pro health care subsidies for the poor.
Wants to keep Social Security as it is.
jcricket
Hey, Al’s not so bad. I’m just giddy today, and bored. It’s not often that we win one. I’ll calm down soon, I promise.
This is sort of what I meant by “never win again”. If they stop running on the preferred agenda of the fundies, anti-taxers and anti-immigration zealots, Republicans could easily start winning again. But short of that, I see more losses in blue + purple states. To be fair, they’ll probably win more in the reddest areas too (no need for moderation there).
Perry Como
My god, Hugh Hewitt is unhinged:
Yes, cutting taxes is a great sacrifice that the nation must bear. W. T. F. ??
searp
Krista: I am not sure a Wilson kind of thing is better than an awake and alert horse’s ass.
Pooh
Davebo, I’m not casting aspersions – given his social views, he seems more naturally a moderate Republican (when such a species could be found in the wild). Same with Casey and Webb.
Zifnab
I’d like to see numbers on that, to be honest. My bet is that at least 30% of the vote comes from some of these far-right crazies – people who would probably curl up in their tin-foil hats and not vote for anybody if the ‘Pubs didn’t pluck this type of low-hanging fruit (pun totally intended). My bet is that at least 30% of the guys running the party right now are these self-same zealots and fundies. And when they’re in that deep its like cancer. They’re in so deep that to carve them out could kill the patient.
Pb
Hey, I didn’t say that utterly useless and obscure historical military references / parallels / bits of trivia, possibly relating to the Roman empire were necessarily bad… :)
Baby Jane
George was woken today to Barney taking a crap on his chest. It was a mandate.
tBone
It’s terribly, terribly sad to see Red State afflicted with BDS. Clearly the terrorists have won.
Is it possible to die from schaudenfreude poisoning? *cough cough cough*
Pb
I stopped reading right here:
No, no he couldn’t. Find me *one* Eisenhower speech that this President could honestly deliver. You can’t, because he’s nothing like Eisenhower. He’s not worthy.
jcricket
And now we’re back to “never win again”. I don’t see an easy way for Republicans to maintain a single party making both moderates and fire-breathers happy. That they’ve done it this long is truly remarkable.
The fire-breathers will demand people even more conservative (particularly on immigration and social issues). These people may only make up 30% of the base, but don’t they usually make up a larger part of primary voters? It could be a continual “drip, drip, drip” of the Republican seats across most parts of the nation for awhile.
Here’s my ancient military history reference for today
jcricket
I was surprised, but Arnold did a 180/mea culpa after his disastrous special election. That dramatically reversed his political fortunes and virtually guaranteed his re-election.
Unfortunately, and I never thought I’d say this, George W Bush is no Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Zifnab
I’m still waiting for this one.
de stijl
I swear that Ann Althouse is a Dada-esque performance piece on the absurdities of banal self-involvement.
Steve
Democrats who spent years calling for Rumsfeld’s head are not going to pick a bitter partisan fight over confirming his replacement. Personally, I still hold a grudge over Iran-Contra, but I feel this is obvious. And people would probably think we were a bunch of asses if Bush finally makes a major concession, and we start giving him holy hell over it.
jcricket
Sorry, but this is too funny to pass up posting. Rumsfeld’s resignation summed up in a Mac OS X screenshot
Punchy
Plus, I heard he’s completely against the West Coast Offense, against instant replay, but plans on voting for the legalization of the nickel defense, as long as it remains fetus-free.
Perry Como
We all have to make sacrifices in the War Against Stupidity. Sometimes we have to get past the Eisenhower comparisons, the Churchill quotes, the Rumsfeld quotes[0] so we can see into the dark heart of incredible ignorance.
[0] – Bush quoted Rumsfeld today in the Oval Office presser about Rumsfeld getting the boot[1]. The quote? “There are known knowns. There are known unknowns. But there are also unknown unknowns.” I shit you not. The War Against Stupidity is a hard one.
[1] – :cough: Bush lied last week :cough:
Richard 23
That’s not too hard to answer. Of course it’s probably easy to be wrong.
I suspect that a scapegoat, an incompetant scapegoat, was necessary. When the investigations begin, all roads point to Rummy, who’s gone now, so it doesn’t matter anymore. Let’s move on rather than fretting over the past.
Get it? It’s pretty clever. Subordinates point up to Rummy, Bush points down to Rummy. But he’s gone so don’t worry about it anymore.
Besides moonbat, what’s your plan for victory in Iraq?
Nah, besides all those “democrats” were “relatively conservative.”
tBone
From your lips to the Kossians’ ears, Steve. I don’t want to see an ugly confirmation fight if Gates looks to be even slightly more competent than Cut ‘n Rummy.
Face
Schwarzy is THE phoniest Republican I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t even know what it means. He’s a Hollywood liberal pasted with an “R” on his chest to get elected and get props from a (one-time) popular Bush.
Pb
I don’t know how I missed this hilariously ridiculous absurdist fantasy before… All I’ll say is that Jonah Goldberg sounds *way* too much like an aroused Stephen Colbert here (in a very special unrated version of the Colbert Report?), and for a number of reasons…
Richard 23
Oh, I heard on the Ranty Rhodes show that the chanters you heard were Medea Benjamin [Code Pink] and Cindy Sheehan (among other moonbats) who were there in case the election went south. As it turned out, they were in the right place at the right time to heckle the Rumsfailed departure.
I don’t have google based verification of this because I am too lazy and don’t really care.
Did Rumsfeld give the v for victory sign, wave and hop onboard a helicoptor? Or was that Nixon?
Cut ‘n’ Rummy? Good one, tBone!
Zifnab
Hahahahahahahaha. That is fantastic. Bears and everything. I would pay money to see that Press Conference.
jcricket
Fine, but still, he could have reacted by being more obstinate and pushing his agenda harder. Instead he tacked left, performed some actually bipartisan acts and regained a huge percentage of votes.
BTW – How come Kalifournia keeps electing “Republican” governors? Are the Democrats that inept there? Or do people just want to put the threat of a “check” on the legislature?
tBone
I stole that from someone at Kos. Those moonbats seem to be taking an inordinate amount of pleasure in the cruel sacking of a great American.
Thankfully, Rummy will undoubtedly get a shiny Medal of Freedom with extra Liberty Polish to keep his spirits up.
Tsulagi
The more I think about this Gates nomination, the more cynical I get. Maybe it’s just because Bush has proven there is no reason to trust him I’m not happier about Rummy going.
Iraq is done, but if Bush was really serious about salvaging anything during his term, he’d need a SecDef who could step in quickly and competently. Powell would be the ideal choice. A former four star who knows the Pentagon, its culture, and knows what the military can and cannot accomplish. He’d know if any of the Joint Chiefs or anyone else in the military was blowing smoke up his ass, and likely none would knowing that. They’d have respect for him.
Even Cohen would be a much better choice than Gates. And if Bush was suddenly now feeling the bipartisan love, he could even consider Wes Clark. Like that would happen.
I think Bush is going for Gates solely to stay the course. The course being to run two years off the clock in Iraq then hand it off to the next guy to blame for the failure. Picking Gates gives Cheney someone he can continue to run, and Bush some time from Dems pushing for change. The Conrad Burns secret war plan is still in operation.
Zifnab
Oh please. Like Powell is going to walk into that rat’s nest again. Maybe you’ve forgotten, but he was Secretary of State. In any sane country, such a position is MORE covetted than Secretary of Defense. And they bent poor Powell over so they could rape his prestigious reputation with a big plastic nukular shaped dildo. Why? Why would Powell EVER want to go back to a position with this White House again? Ever?
Pb
Tsulagi,
Agreed. The Bush administration only bows to political realities–not actual realities–and then only after those political realities manage to become common wisdom, only after the fact. They fight everything and concede nothing–even when it looks like they’re conceding, they just move on to another layer of fighting and obstruction, never changing their original goals. For example, all of this was evident in their multi-year obstruction of the 9/11 commission–starting with the very idea of it.
Tsulagi
He certainly wouldn’t do it out of any love of Bush. Bush and the boys did everything they could to screw him. But he would do for those in uniform.
The Asshole Formerly Known as GOP4Me
This is the greatest victory the terrorists and their moonbat enablers have ever achieved. The Global War on Freedom has suffered a crippling blow.
6-30 months from now, when Osama Bin Laden is playing shuffleboard at Camp David, I shall be the first to mumble “I told you so” to you moonbats.
numbskull
Tsulagi,
Agreed also.
I do not agree with other posters who say that Gates’ nomination should be rubber stamped. HELLLLOOOO! That’s what we’ve just had – 6 years of rubberstamping the extremely shitty decisions of a nobody who should still be drunk on a stool in Midland, Texas.
Look, if Drinky McStagger can’t pull his head out of his ass and make a decent appointment, the New and Improved Congress is just gonna have to help him. They should in NO WAY encourage further mediocracy.
C’mon guys, borrow a quarter and buy a clue. Why do you think the voters just tossed all those go-along-get-along jerks out on their asses? So they could hire new jerks to wield the same rubber stamp??
Pooh
California Republicans are known by another name in 48 states: Democrats. Of COURSE Arny is Demalicious, he’s married to a frakin’ Kennedy.
I have to say, I kinda like to Gubernator. Of course it’s easier from 3,000 miles away, give or take…
(Mapquest sez…3169.33 miles…)
jcricket
In another era it would be hard for me to hate Arnold post-special election. Funding for stem cells? Alternative fuel for vehicles? etc. It’s only in the hyper-partisan because Republicans hate everyone to the left of Santorum-era that someone like Arnold is really hard to tolerate. However, since he is still an “R”, there’s one less Democratic governor that would stump for a Democratic presidential nominee, other Democratic senators or representatives, etc. I’ll take him over a real Republican, of course, but it’s just the lesser of two evils.
Hell, even Arnold tried to run to the right his first year in office. You hear a lot less about changing the US constitution to allow foreign-born, but long-time US citizens run for President these days because of that.
Pooh
It’s California, I’m not especially worried about this one…
Richard Bottoms
Rumsfeld.
Gone Baby Gone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSxkAZcnMPA
jcricket
Right, fine, Arnold’s not the end of the world. I’m just greedy. We need 100% control in blue states. Mwuahahahahahaa
grumpy realist
The Bush Administration reminds me of the comment about the Bourbons: “They never learned anything and they never forgot anything.”
SeesThroughIt
Well, as various commentors have pointed out, Arnie made all the right moves after his little ballot initiative stunt. He triangulated, raced toward the middle, worked with Democrats in good faith, brokered compromise…you know, all that stuff that is tantamount to terrorism for a Bushie. Also, he is socially liberal-leaning while politically/economically conservative-leaning, which plays fairly well out here.
Meanwhile, the Angeledes campaign rather stupidly spent all this time, money, and effort trying to paint Arnie as a standard-issue Bushie. I doubt very many people out here actually bought that: Arnie’s well known for going against Bush on a number of issues. Fuckin’ stupid strategy.
Steve
Arnold did the same thing Clinton did after 1994, with similar success. The question now is whether Bush it in him to do the same for the next two years. While it’s not the way I would bet, today’s events were pretty stunning for anyone who’s been paying attention for the last six years.
Beej
“Politics is the art of compromise.” Don’t remember who said that (other than every media talking head out there), but the problem is, nobody really likes to compromise. Seems like it’s only when we have a divided government, and both Congress and the President are forced into compromise if they want to get anything at all done, that good things seem to happen for the country. Remember the Gingrich revolution when Clinton was President? The Repubs tried to play hardball on the budget, betting that Clinton would cave rather than shutting down the government. Clinton didn’t cave, the government got shut down, and the voters blamed Congress, not the White House. They then got down to some serious negotiation and Voila! a balanced budget, with surpluses even. Maybe divided government is a good thing. Anyway it sure beats hell out of an all Repub one.
srv
I guess ulimately, our god was bigger than his god.
Njorl
Something that people might not know, you may not be Sec Def if you’ve been active military in the last 10 years. It cuts down on the field of potential ex-military hires.
Jay
Indeed, I did not know this. Thank you.
I must say I feel sorry for who ever gets the job, provided they aren’t a sorry SOB like Cut n’ Runny. Talk about handing someone a flaming bag of crap.
Jon H
Hey John Cole,
This should amuse you: there’s a commenter on Red State mentioning a rumor that the press corps’ chants of “na na na na…” made it hard to hear what was being said.
Niket
Hi John,
I haven’t read the comments much. But one thing I haven’t seen major blogs speak is: whether Rumsfeld’s resignation came as a result of the editorials in the Military Times? Somehow, that looks like a stronger possibility to me than Dems winning.
Or perhaps, I don’t understand American politics so much.
skip
Word in Georgetown is that Cambone will be next to quit; and he is, if anything, worse than Rumsfeld. A neocon goosestepper of the first rank.
jcricket
According to GW he had made the decision weeks ago (before those editorials came out). Who knows who to believe.
t. jasper parnell
I don’t know about this; everything they do seems like an accident, one either waiting to happen or one in which the horrific crash, bang, and boom announced a policy doomed to fail.
jcricket
Then their careful plan of misdirection has worked. No, seriously, I think they don’t do anything truly by “accident”, they just think through their actions so poorly they end up having unintended consequences, and rarely succeed in their original intentions. Or, others have thought through the consequences, and they rejected those people (or fired them, or rendered them to secret prisons). Either way, it’s different than a true accident.
I suppose you could call it an “unhappy accident”, if you really wanted to.
Joe1347
I wonder if dumping Rumsfeld was necessary to protect the Bush Admin from the inevitable barrage of subpoenas from Democratic House and Senate investigative committees? The remaining high-profile architect of the Iraq Fiasco – Cheney – will likely claim some form of executive privilege and hide under a Supreme Court bench for the next two years. With Rumsfeld gone – who should or will the Democrats hit with subpoenas? Beating up on the Generals doesn’t seem like a good idea (need to look like you still support the troops). I wonder if this is the reason why Rumsfeld was kept around to just after the election – since if Rumsfeld was replaced say 7 months ago. That replacement would actually know something that could be damaging to the Bush Admin – while the new guy brought in post election can just claim that he doesn’t know anything. Especially since the new Sec Defense isn’t part of the existing Admin and can therefore claim complete ignorance of the Iraq Fiasco.