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Wed 8 Nov, 2006 12:37 pm
Just got this news alert from the Washington Post:
Rumsfeld to Step Down as Defense Secretary
Bush Taps Former CIA Director Robert Gates as Successor
By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006; 1:32 PM
President Bush today announced he is replacing Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of defense, saying a "fresh perspective" is needed at the Pentagon to deal with the war in Iraq.
In a White House news conference a day after midterm elections delivered the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate, to Democratic Party control , Bush said he has chosen former CIA director Robert Gates to succeed Rumsfeld.
"Now after a series of thoughtful conversations, Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that the time is right for new leadership at the Pentagon," Bush said.
The announcement came a week after Bush had said Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney would be staying in their jobs after the elections. Earlier, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House minority leader who is slated to become the first woman speaker of the House when the 110th Congress convenes in January, urged Bush to work with Democrats "in a bipartisan way" to find a way out of the war in Iraq, among other issues. And she called on him to "change the civilian leadership of the Pentagon" as a signal of "a change of direction on the part of the president" and of "openness to fresh ideas" on Iraq.
Rumsfeld, 74, was in his second tour of duty as defense chief. He first held the job a generation ago, when he was appointed by President Ford.
Gates, currently president of Texas A&M University, was a 26-year career intelligence operative with close ties to the Bush family.
He joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1966 after a brief stint in the Air Force, rising through the ranks to eventually run the agency in the early 1990s, the last years of President George H. W. Bush's term in office. He was deputy national security adviser from 1989 to 1991 for President Bush and deputy CIA director from 1986 until 1989, according to his biography on the Texas A&M Web site.
A Kansas native with a doctorate in Russian studies, he served on the staff of the National Security Office in the 1970s during a break in his CIA career. The current President Bush had approached him before about returning to government, asking him to become the new director of national intelligence -- a job he declined and which eventually went to John Negroponte.
If Gates is another "yes" man to Bush, he's wasting everybody's time, money, and human lives.
I think the last time I felt the way I do now, is the day I learned the Berlin Wall was coming down.
It's about 2 1/2 years past when he should have resigned. All the harm has been done now.
The only worry I now have is the tendency of Bush to select "yes" men.
Bush says Rumsfeld is stepping down
By DAVID ESPO and LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writers 3 minutes ago
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as defense secretary on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses.
President Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.
Asked whether his announcement signaled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops, Bush said, "Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon."
Bush lavished praise on Rumsfeld, who has spent six stormy years at his post. The president disclosed he met with Gates last Sunday, two days before the elections in which Democrats swept to control of the House and possibly the Senate.
Last week, as he campaigned to save the Republican majority, Bush declared that Rumsfeld would remain at the Pentagon through the end of his term.
Rumsfeld, 74, was in his second tour of duty as defense chief. He first held the job a generation ago, when he was appointed by President Ford.
Whatever confidence Bush retained in Rumsfeld, the Cabinet officer's support in Congress had eroded significantly. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., the House speaker-in-waiting, said at her first postelection news conference that Bush should replace the top civilian leadership at the Pentagon.
And Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who had intervened in the past to shore up Rumsfeld, issued a statement saying, "Washington must now work together in a bipartisan way ?- Republicans and Democrats ?- to outline the path to success in Iraq."
The Pentagon offered no date for Rumsfeld's departure.
Gates, 63, has served as the president of Texas A&M University since August 2002, and as the university's interim dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service from 1999 to 2001.
The school is home to the presidential library of Bush's father. Gates is a close friend of the Bush family, and particularly the first President Bush.
He served as deputy national security adviser from 1989 to 1991 and then as CIA director during the first Iraq war, from 1991 until 1993.
Gates joined the CIA in 1966 and is the only agency employee to rise from an entry level job to the 7th floor director's office. He served in the intelligence community for more than a quarter century, under six presidents.
Bush has considered Gates for jobs before, including in 2005 when he was searching for a candidate to be the nation's first national intelligence director.
His nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.
Rep. Ike Skelton (news, bio, voting record), D-Mo., who is expected to chair the House Armed Services Committee next year, said Rumsfeld's resignation "presents an important opportunity for our country to begin a new policy direction in Iraq and in the war on terrorism."
He encouraged the Bush administration to take advantage of the fresh start.
AP
I think this will be more of a symbolic change, to assuage calls from the electorate for some kind of change, but at least for the next two years it will still be largely "staying the course" with a few inconsequential modifications.
Don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out, Rummy.
Rummy "is" the arse that finally got the "boot."
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