Rumsfeld Is Toast!

Bush accepted the resignation of Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld today, one week after he said that Rumsfeld would be his Sec. of Defense until the end of his administration. IT IS LONG PAST TIME!

The resignation is seen as unexpected. Yet Bush already had a replacement ready, former CIA director Robert Gates. Rummy is clearly a fall guy for the (yet to be admitted) failure in Iraq and for the loss of yesterday's election.

Another thing I think the resignation does: it takes some of the steam out of potential hearings the Democrats in Congress are likely to hold. They can call Rummy in front of committees and he can say he's no longer involved or no longer has access to that data. He can pass it off to the new Sec. of Defense. If the Democrats call Gates to testify he can plead ignorance since he wasn't in charge and was not in government at the time.