The Daily Background

Donald Rumsfeld’s replacement as Secretary of Defense was been confirmed by the US Senate a very short time ago, in a vote of 95-2 (three Senators did not participate, both negative votes came from Republicans: Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Jim Bunning, R-Ky because they thought he wasn’t conservative enough). Gates will not be sworn in […]

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The Senate Armed Services Committee will begin to interview President Bush’s SecDef nominee Robert Gates today, which is expected to go fairly quickly, despite questions about prior intelligence manipulation on his part– more on that here (this is a point that Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan intends to ask about. Levin, currently the Ranking […]

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Well, this is somewhat unbelievable. Turns out that hours before he was fired by President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote one last top secret memo, and it outlined a grave disconnect with his public statements and those of the President about the Iraq war. Set to splash on the Sunday New York Times […]

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Another excerpt from Bob Woodward’s State of Denial:

In July 2006, I told Rumsfeld that I understood the number of attacks [on US troops] was going up. “That’s probably true” he said.
“It’s also probably true that our data is better, and we’re categorizing more things as attacks. A random round can be an attack, and all […]

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Oh man. Holy crap. The following is absolutely hilarious, except for the dying part:
At least he’s consistent. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who has been criticized by the press for his overly optimistic or downright misleading appraisals of our progress in Iraq, did it again Wednesday night — on a quite different subject. In remarks […]

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Here’s an interesting little discrepancy I just discovered while trawling Ye Olde LexisNexis. More Americans were rooting for the President to fire Donald Rumsfeld than wanted him to simply resign. In a CNN/OPR poll conducted last month, participants were asked the following:

Do you think Donald Rumsfeld should or should not resign as Secretary of Defense?

And:

Do […]

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The Senate is expected to begin the confirmation process for President Bush’s nominee for Secretary of Defense (Robert Gates) around the week of December 4th, according to published reports.
If so, the Senate is cutting it a little bit close, as many members tend to leave early for December vacation. This is traditionally the period where […]

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Another relevant bit from Woodward’s State of Denial.
Former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card pressed the President to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense. Bush was apparently “intrigued” and considered it, but ultimately Rove and he decided against it (despite Card’s request to ditch Rumsfeld for somebody more ‘diplomatic’) because they were afraid […]

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Bob Woodward on Rumsfeld’s attempts to resign after the Abu Ghraib scandal, from State of Denial:

… Monday, May 10th, Bush went to the Pentagon and met with Rumsfeld, who offered to resign. Just before noon, Bush appeared in public with Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, and General Meyers. Turning to Rumsfeld, he said “You’re doing a superb […]

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President Bush said that the reason why he told reporters Rumsfeld would be staying on right before the elections was that he “didn’t want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of the campaign.” Does anybody really believe that the President wanted that hard to stay out of the midterm […]

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FOX says that more resignations are expected soon at the Pentagon, following that of the Secretary of Defense:

Among those expected to hand in resignation letters alongside Rumsfeld’s is the Pentagon’s top intelligence official, Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Steve Cambone, a close Rumsfeld associate and a key architect in planning for the Iraq war […]

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TIME Magazine has an exclusive report on its website today that reveals charges will soon be brought against outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in Germany within the next week. Germany’s top prosecutor will be involved and plaintiffs (former detainees) allege that Rumsfeld personally approved torture tactics.
And that’s not all– they’re bringing in a former Brigadier […]

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Looks like accepting Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation was the most popular thing President Bush has done in ages:

1,200 voters were asked if Rumsfeld did the right thing, or the wrong thing, in resigning.
Sixty-six percent said it was the right thing while 24 percent said it was the wrong thing. Ten percent said they were not sure.
27% […]

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Totally un-scientific CNN poll asks: What effect will Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation have in Iraq? 88% of CNN visitors say his resignation will have a positive effect.

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