Why the master tactician had to fall on his sword

[spindrifter]

The Times November 09, 2006

By Gerard Baker, US Editor

No one understands the brutality of Washington politics better than Donald Rumsfeld. He has practised a bit of it himself over almost four decades at the top. As a senior member of Richard Nixon’s Administration, then as the Chief of Staff and Defence Secretary for Gerald Ford, he gained a reputation as one of the most gifted of bureaucratic knife-fighters.

Back at the Pentagon under President Bush, and in alliance with his old friend Vice-President Dick Cheney, Mr Rumsfeld has proved adept at leveraging the harsh realities of politics to achieve ends that can leave colleagues bruised.

So he will have easily grasped the unforgiving logic that forced him out of the Pentagon after six turbulent years.

That did not prevent him sounding a note of bitterness in his brief appearance with President Bush. “I call to mind the words of Winston Churchill, who said, ‘I have benefited greatly from criticism and at no time have I suffered a lack thereof’.”

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2444442,00.html

[MadMaddie]

1. He is a sociopath...he feels no responsibility for the shit hole

he has thrown our soldiers in....

[Jacobin]

2. Poppy Fired Cheney and Rumsfeld

The neocons are gone.
Rumsfeld had nothing to do with it except being the most visible idiot standing in the pile of sewerage the neocons created.

[Holly_Hobby]

4. What's this about Cheney??? n/t

[Jacobin]

5. Have you noticed he's nowhere to be seen?

He'll live out the rest of his term in the bunker with his trap shut. He's been castrated. He and Rumsfeld ran Bush* and the war.

Poppy has taken over. The war is ending soon.

[Holly_Hobby]

7. Oh, I get it now, thanks :) n/t

[unc70]

8. Hunting accident? Heart attack in Vail?

Might be interesting to track down the other actors in this power play.

[bemildred]

3. What's that sucking sound I hear?

Churchill my ass.

[stillcool]

6. I fail to understand the significance...

of Rummy's resignation. Rearranging the furniture maybe a nice aesthetic but it doesn't change anything. Dusting off another old guard who made his bones with Iran/Contra does not instill any hope in me.