Rumsfeld resigned

[jackpine savage]

Guess that says all that it needs to

[Wayward Son]

I dunno who might be on tap, but I would like to see Schwartzkoff take the position.

[jackpine savage]

Bush is having a press conference now, mentioned Robert Gates ex-CIA head

[Bill McIntyre]

I watched the press conference. You have probably heard that Robert Gates will be his successor. Gates was CIA director for Bush 41.

It appears that Bush may finally be going to his earthly father rather than his heavenly father for advice. Baker, who co-chairs the Iraq what-the-hell-to-do-now-team is one of his father's main men, and now we get Gates too.

I watched it on MSNBC, and Chris Mathews said that Bush 41 had always disliked Rumsfeld and never trusted him, but Bush 43 was listening to Cheney. Now he appears to have pushed Cheney aside.

I almost felt sorry for Bush fielding questions at the press conference, but I thought he handled it surprisingly well. They kept pushing him on having told them just a couple of days ago that Rummy was staying and asking if he changed his mind because of the election. He tried to say that he had already made the decision to dump Rummy but just had not been able to talk to Gates yet. Suuuure.

The poor guy has been taking advice from the wrong people for way too long. Karl Rove got him to stick with a strategy of appealing to the far right and letting the middle go, and that backfired in this election. And Cheney and other neocons apparently got him to stick with Rummy. His father's National Security advisor, Brent Scocroft, was banned from the White House for writing an OpEd column opposing the war before it started.

Hopefully he has finally decided that his Daddy and his Daddy"s advisors may know something after all.

[jfjf]

If he would've fired Rummy 2 weeks ago and made a claim that he was going to bring some change to the Iraq war, the Republicans would have done a LOT better. Really poor timing on Bush's part.

[jackpine savage]

He kind of gave Rove a bitch slap during the press conference. He was half joking but at the same time was serious when he said(something along these lines) if some others had worked as hard as me(bush) we would have done better.

[jfjf]

On the other hand, he probably wouldn't have dumped Rummy if they had won the House. Sounds like he took the gamble

[Bill McIntyre]

On the other hand, he probably wouldn't have dumped Rummy if they had won the House. Sounds like he took the gamble

I think this is part of the problem that he is not a curious George who seeks out information himself. He has taken pride in saying that he doesn't read newspapers, but has people who read them for him. I don't expect him to have as much time as I do to read newspapers, magazines, etc. but all he hears is what a few close advisors want him to hear, and this time it didn't work out for him.