Upon hearing the news of Rumsfeld’s resignation my first thought was the Republicans must be seething with anger that it came one day after the election. I’ve puzzled why Bush hadn’t made the move earlier when it could have helped Republicans. What on earth were the reasonings behind that one I wondered. TheNYT reports today that the move had been planned since this summer but…
Mr. Bush ultimately postponed action until after the election in part because of concern that to remove Mr. Rumsfeld earlier could be interpreted by critics as political opportunism or as ratifying their criticism of the White House war plan in the heart of the campaign, the White House insiders and outsiders said.
It’s not that Bush is not a political opportunist. The Campaigner in Chief embodies political opportunism. He just didn’t want to be grandly exposed as opportunist and blow that whole I’m the Decider schtik he’s had going on. Nor did he believe in the war plan. He knew criticism was justified, he just didn’t want to confirm it.
TodayThe Hill reports that Republicans are “furious” over the timing of Rummy’s resignation…
Members and staff still reeling from Tuesday’s rout are furious about the administration’s decision to dump the controversial defense secretary one day after their historic loss, they said in a series of interviews about the election results.
SNIP
“They did this to protect themselves, but they couldn’t protect us?” another Republican aide said yesterday.
That last quote sums up what I concluded last night. I’m embarrassed to admit I even spent more than 3 minutes trying to derive meaningful political reasoning for Bush’s lack of action earlier on Rummy when the answer was what I’ve known all along…Bush…he’s a selfish bastard.