Reasons for Rumsfeld's Resignation
It has been widely reported that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has offered his resignation to the President on several occasions over the last few years. But today, the President has apparently accepted the offer:
David Espo & Liz Sidoti - November 7th, 2006 President Bush said Wednesday Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is stepping down and former CIA Director Robert Gates will take over at the Pentagon and in prosecuting the war in Iraq.
Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon. The development occurred one day after midterm elections that cost Republicans control of the House, and possibly the Senate, as well. Surveys of voters at polling places said opposition to the war was a significant contributor to the Democratic victory.
Technically, the reasons for this decision are obvious: the President no longer feels that Rumsfeld is the best man for the job. But the timing of the decision begs any number of questions, most of which are hopelessly Machiavellian. For example:- Why announce the day after the midterm elections, when such an announcement would, at least presumably, temper criticism of the conduct of the war? Were there fears that such a decision would be seen as too nakedly political?
- Was the decision contingent on a disappointing showing in the midterms?
- Was the decision contingent on a disappointing showing accompanied by the consensus that Iraq was the primary factor in many of the Congressional losses?
- If the last point is true, was the decision made in part as a gesture towards Democratic leaders, a concession to Democratic leaders (perhaps their new position of power makes such a change inevitable?), or is it simply a concession to an electorate which demands a high-level indicator of accountability?
I generally believe that pundits (and pundit-ish folks like myself) overthink these sorts of things, and that as complex as Karl "Keyser Soze" Rove's political machinations might be, the truth is generally a lot simpler than the convoluted theories that the blogosphere occasionally spits out.
UPDATE: Austin Bay, coincidentally, has some answers to some of the hypothetical questions above.
» November 8th, 2006
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