Poor Chimpy. He's catching it from all ends.

[CatWoman]

Bush faces GOP ire over Rumsfeld timing

WASHINGTON - The White House is trying to soothe Republicans who say the party might have fared better on Election Day if President Bush had not waited until after the vote to oust Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

"You could argue that either way, of what political effect an earlier decision on Secretary Rumsfeld would have had. But it doesn't matter," White House chief of staff Josh Bolten said Sunday.

"The president correctly decided that this decision does not belong in the political realm. And a decision as important as your secretary of defense should not be made based on some partisan political advantage. It would send a terrible signal to our troops, to our allies, even to our enemies," Bolten said.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has suggested that if Bush replaced Rumsfeld two weeks before the election, voters would not have been as angry about the unpopular Iraq war. Republicans would have gained the boost they needed, according to Gingrich, to retain their majority in the Senate and hold onto 10 to 15 more House seats.

Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., the outgoing chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, agreed with that assessment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061112/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_rumsfeld

[survivor999]

1. Good! That bastard.

[upi402]

2. one more end to catch it in, after the convictions

[MoonRiver]

3. He richly deserves it all.

BRING IT ON :kick:

[DinahMoeHum]

4. Excuse me while I reach for a Kleenex. . .NOT !!

:nopity:

[Salviati]

5. Bullcrap

"The president correctly decided that this decision does not belong in the political realm."

I call shennanigans. If the republicans had come out ahead in the midterms, or even if they just hadn't had their ass handed to them, Rummy wouldn't be going anywhere. This decicison was already square in the middle of the political realm, just like every decicion made by this administration.

[CatWoman]

6. seems only the wingnuts and morans hold onto the contention

that Rummy would be gone if they had held onto congress.

no one is stupid - other than them.

[Stardust]

9. Whose quote is that? (I smell Snowballs.) Gawd, save me...

Have I mentioned tonight how much I hate these people?

[NNadir]

7. Gingrich shows once more that he is a complete idiot.

He seems to think that the war can be fixed by symbolic actions. It probably burns his ass too that the Democrats are behaving in an anti-Gingrich manner, with grace, cool and aplomb.

Of course I do not believe for a second that this means at all we will be accommodating. The Repuke party is sinking badly with Bush but the corruption and hypocrisy began a long time ago with Gingrich. He didn't lose his speakership because he was an honest man with integrity. On the contrary Gingrich was driven from the speakership for his complete lack of integrity.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

8. NOT to defend Chimpy in any way...

But were either of these 2 calling for Rummy to step down before the elections?

Serious question.



Regardless, they are piling on "their boy" now that the chips are down. Safe now eh guys?

:rofl:

[BeyondGeography]

10. The bullshit continues; Rummy would've stayed if they kept Congress

Bolten: "The president correctly decided that this decision does not belong in the political realm." A pile of horseshit if I ever saw one...This was an ENTIRELY political decision. What, pray tell, would have been the incentive for Bush to axe Rummy if the Congress was still Republican? Bush saw Rumsfeld as a blood brother on Iraq. He literally had to be dragged kicking and screaming to fire him. Gates was interviewed just in case the Dems won, which was actually a smart move by Junior. Had the result been reversed, Bush, who thought he had a mandate coming out of the narrow 2004 win, would certainly have stood by Rumsfeld, having already gone on record with his support.

In short, he was playing a double game, which makes this story (and the whining from the defeated Congressmen) a waste of time.

[Disturbed]

13. Why did Busholini allow Rumsfailed to resign?

It doesn't make sense. Didn't he declare many time that Rumsfool was doing a fantastic job? How can a person doing a fantastic job be let go? Could it be because of political pressure from the RWing? Hmmm... it is really confusing.

[Cha]

11. Tough Shit,

bitches..did you even suggest it to the incredibly Shrinking Chimp?



I'm sure chimp "made the decision" to oust rummy..

[Captain Hilts]

12. He'll find 'sympathy' between 'shit' and 'syphillis' in the dictionary. nt

[Dhalgren]

14. That "political" excuse is complete bullshit and if the WH has anyone

with a modicum of common sense vetting these inane statements they would be better off.

The Littlest Dictator says that he didn't fire Rummy earlier because he didn't want to inject the "war" into the politics of the elections. But, then, what he is saying is that he allowed the politics of the elections to dictate his execution of a "war" decision. It is worse to allow politics to influence war decisions than it is to allow the war to influence politics....

[enid602]

15. Poppy

I think the truth is that Bush had no intention of getting rid of Rumsfeld until Poppy took him out to the woodshed.

[CatWoman]

18. check this out:

If you want to know why Bush Jr held onto Rumsfeld longer than any sane person should have, one clue lies in the paternal relationship. Surrendering Rumsfeld means that Poppy was right. Not just right about Rumsfeld’s skills and nasty streak. Right about the biggest things: war and peace, country and honour. Rummy was in some ways the personification of the son’s refusal to be his father. Rummy was the prickly, querulous, impolitic businessman, everything Poppy was not.

By picking one of his father’s old nemeses to head the Pentagon in 2000, W was also telling the old man to stay out of his affairs. And Poppy did. As Woodward also recounts, Bush Sr told his friend Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia: “I had my turn. It is his turn now. I just have to stay off the stage . . . I will not make any comment vis-à-vis this president, not only out of principle but to let him be himself.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2449573,00.html

[williesgirl]

16. BS - Rummy would still be there if they'd won.

[blue sky at night]

17. excuse us, but wasn't it the republica party.........

that tried to lay all of that "BLAME GAME" garbage on the dems back in '04...well, look who's playing now. Sore Losers are always flailing away at each other, huh.