Here's why Rummy's gone

[pdxmike]

Three words- Testify under oath.
You know he'll be get a subpoena from Waxman and Levin in their respective committees. They'll make him testify under oath. He can either refuse to testify, take the fifth, or lie under oath. All bad for Bush. If Rummy is no longer in the Pentagon, he'll still face a subpoena. But the damage can be mitigated.

[PATRICK]

1. But that is months away

It seems more like rushed(but waiting in the wings) housecleaning to clean up the dethroned Emperor's mess. As others have sugggested, as in the second Reagan term, a battle for influence is being swiftly resolved after a long deferment to Cheny.

[pdxmike]

6. that's true Patrick

But I think the timing was intentional(it always is). Firing Rummy now lets them take the attention off of the Democratic takeover of Congress. And at the same time lets the MSM start playing the meme about a "new", conciliatory Bush. If the Dems don't play nice, they're being shrill and partisan- or so the script will read.

[Demeter]

11. Not Only That, But Get Replacement In With Friends Still Seated

Once the new Congress is sworn in, the gloves come off for all Bush appointees.

[PATRICK]

12. Which is all part

of a defensive makeover and stoppage of the juggernaut. They will have their hands full with their own party, as eviscerated of real leadership as it is, so they will placate and delay. And the longer the Bush clique twists slowly in the wind the worse it will be for the GOP they rule over. The whole strategy is changing- as it would have had they been stopped in other years politically- only this time the clock has run out for a comeback.

[eleny]

2. They can still call him to tesisty, no?

I want to watch him take the fifth under oath. Or whatever. The truth would be nice but I doubt we'll see it. I'm for a special prosecutor getting a hold of this thing. And others, many others will be called to testify - and make deals. How many would want to go to jail to save Rum's wrinkly ass.

[hlthe2b]

4. Yes... he can still be required to testify...

But, no longer representing the Bush* administration does allow them to isolate his testimony... They'll pull out the long knives and start the rumor campaigns that Rummy has Alzheimers or whatever drug use is in vogue...

[MADem]

10. Alternatively, Rummy can turn on them all, and use the Nuremberg defense

But see, I vas only following ORDERS!!!!

If he's smart, he'll have 'recall' problems, or other health issues, at least until he can wrestle a pardon out of the Monkey -- a FULL pardon, like Cap Weinberger did. Then, his testimony becomes an exercise in blame-shouldering, since he's off the hook for his sins. Hell, when Cap got HIS pardon, the Congress said "Awww, fuck it" because they knew it was a pointless exercise.


The fact is, there are 1,700 pages of Weinberger's notes which hang both Cap and George - the very same notes that Weinberger, under oath before Congress, swore never existed. He was caught only when he tried to have the materials archived (at our expense) for his personal use and amour propre. And now Weinberger - who lied to Congress to protect Ronald Reagan from impeachment - has the temerity to paint the special prosecutor as "out of control."

Weinberger is certainly no stranger to prevarication. David Stockman's auto, biography, The Triumph of Politics, documents Weinberger, as Secretary of Defense, and his assistant secretary Frank Carlucci intentionally cooking the Pentagon's books to win their friends in the DOD an extra $80 billion a year. In Stockman's words, this little ride on the gravy train had them "squealing with delight throughout the military-industrial complex."

But in the Age of Reagan, such men were dubbed patriots and granted unlimited air time to serve up Gold War philippics about freedom and democracy (while at the same time arming drug runners and miscreants like the Nicaraguan contras).

And there's the rub. The pundits have expressed a great deal of outrage over George Bush's blatant disregard for the law. But missing from many post-mortems has been the international dimension of Bush's yuletide amnesty. Weinberger and his confederates did indeed hijack the Constitution and arrogate untold powers to the National Security Council, CIA, Pentagon, and State Department. But how many hundreds (yes, hundreds) of thousands of people died at the hands of mercenaries and proxy forces armed and aided by these now-pardoned thugs?...

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1374/is_n2_v53/ai_13566133

Eh... Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, I guess...

What's really amusing though, is that this change of command in terms of who's advising the Monkey reminds us that, while Poppy was surely smarter than Chimpy, he most certainly passed on the Corruption Gene to his Sonnyboy....

[hlthe2b]

13. Yup... they certainly have the "drill" down...

No more dynasties! Bottom line... At least then we have the CHANCE to throw out each corrupt gang with a change in WH.

[HereSince1628]

3. I'm not quite sure how it'd be mitigated. Can you expand on that?

What he knows is so incriminating that unless Bush is after Cheney's hide Bush will try to cover him with "executive priveledge."

[hlthe2b]

5. Once out of office they can effectively isolate Rummy...

and make him the fall guy, isolate him, make it seem like they have "fixed" the problems that Rummy brought by getting rid of him...

[HereSince1628]

9. That wouldn't give Cheney ANY cover. A truthtelling Rummy

which I admit is probably highly unlikely, could be devastating. There's a limit to how hard they can punish Rummy. Rummy may be a good soldier, but Cheney's career is indebted to Rummy.

[hlthe2b]

14. I"d love to be surprised... but a "truth telling Rummy" is something

I just can not fathom...

[catnhatnh]

7. These boys always fall back on the same techniques....

...they have used before...think Safavian quitting just hours before indictment and the press reporting "FORMER" white house official indicted....it won't work any more now that we can force accountability, but like a headless male mantis the repubs carry on brainlessly doing what they do best......

[TechBear_Seattle]

8. The moment he leaves, his security clearance is yanked

Once he no longer has access to government secrets, he is forbidden by law from discussing those secrets, even if subpoenaed by Congress to do so. To change this, Congress would have to change the law, which of course the President would veto.

This is a very smart move for him.