April 19, 2006

Caterwauling Aside, Bush Sticks With Rumsfeld

Quick, how do you get George W. Bush to do something he doesn’t want to do? Get a parade of people to show up day after day on cable news demanding it. Works every time, right?

Then how is Donald Rumsfeld still running the Department of Defense? Oh, wait, not just still running it, but running it with a very strong endorsement from Bush.

“Secretary Rumsfeld’s energetic and steady leadership is exactly what is needed at this critical period,” Bush said in a statement specially prepared for vulture-like media thinking they were about to take down a big one. “He has my full support and deepest appreciation.”

Take that, disgruntled retired generals! Don’s not going anywhere. Now you, well, you’re already gone. Hope you didn’t let the door hit you, fellas. Don? Still in charge.

Rumsfeld has been the biggest take-down target of the left for some time now. After CBS publicized the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, howls for Rumsfeld’s resignation emanated from every lefty corner, from Berkeley to San Francisco to Madison to Chappaquiddick and the Heinz/Kerry estate. Rumsfeld even went so far as to offer Bush his resignation. Twice.

Nothing doing. Bush wouldn’t accept it.

One term ended, another began. The usual cabinet turnover commenced, with more than half the secretaries moving on to other things. But Donald Rumsfeld, the oldest and most under-fire in the entire cabinet, went nowhere. The arrival of 2006 has seen further departures from the Cabinet (Interior Secretary Gale Norton) and the White House staff itself (Chief of Staff Andrew Card), but Rumsfeld remains.

The latest Anti-Rummy Ordnance is coming from six retired generals – or seven if you count erstwhile presidential candidate Wesley Clark – who started the me-too thing once the Dump-On-Don routine became the big storyline.

Some of the complaining generals have more credibility than others. Maj. Gen. John Batiste commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq until last November. Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, led the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq. That doesn’t necessarily make them right, but at least they’ve been engaged in the current conflict.

Retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, by contrast, was last seen in 2002 attempting to broker an Israeli/Palestinain deal in a performance so pathetically ineffective – we’re talking Jimmy Carter territory here – Bush must have been embarrassed to have asked him. Now there’s a guy who’s not going to get any more stuff to do.

But Rumsfeld goes on and on, perhaps unsurprisingly to his critics, who probably figure they win either way. Either they take him down, or they turn him into a perpetual political problem for Bush. But as usual, they misread Bush. Some say Bush’s loyalty goes too far and causes him problems, but Bush understands that offing people just because of pressure from critics only invites the critics to seek new targets.

Does Rumsfeld really need to be replaced because a handful of retired generals are upset that he didn’t take their advice about some things? Maybe some of it was even good advice, but chief executives have to make decisions all the time – often in the face of conflicting advice from different deputies. Good advice is great. Sniveling little smart-alecks who run to the media saying told-you-so can be a little annoying to have around, especially since they know the media will assume their advice was flawless – it must have been if Rumsfeld didn’t take it – and will certainly not ask them if they were ever wrong about anything.

Retired Marine Corps Lt. General Mike DeLong, who is not joining the Dump Don Chorus, recounts that Rumsfeld has been known to summarily dismiss people who come to see him unprepared and uninformed. So the big guy is rough on you if you haven’t got your stuff together. Tough toenails. You don’t suppose some of our friends currently making the rounds of the cable networks may have been sent out of Rumsfeld’s office with their tails between their legs, do you?

Don Rumsfeld is self-confident and unapologetic. He also takes no nonsense from reporters, many of whom are surely delighted to have a parade of uniformed Rumsfeld critics to book for their chat shows. More importantly, since the day he returned to the Pentagon after a 25-year absence, he’s been working to redefine how the United States prepares for, fights and wins wars. Because that’s what his boss wants him to do. It’s no wonder folks like Zinni are upset at Rumsfeld for “throwing away 10 years of planning.” Hmm. Planning by whom? Zinni? Planning to rival the quality of Zinni’s work vis-à-vis Yasser Arafat, you suppose?

No wonder Rumsfeld threw it away.

It sure sounds like Rumsfeld shows up for meetings with the boss a bit better prepared than some of Rumsfeld’s underlings were when they came to see him. Of course, Bush is characteristically unpersuaded by the caterwauling, and certainly understands that the taking down of a Defense Secretary in the middle of a war can only help one side in the conflict. And it’s not the side these recently retired generals were supposedly on.

This is Column # DC29. Request permission to publish here.