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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Bush Sr. tried to replace Rumsfeld - Blumenthal

(It's Salon, so you can get to it if you watch the little ad.)
Former President George H.W. Bush waged a secret campaign over several months early this year to remove Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The elder Bush went so far as to recruit Rumsfeld's potential replacement, personally asking a retired four-star general if he would accept the position, a reliable source close to the general told me. But the former president's effort failed, apparently rebuffed by the current president.

This is in a column, but it's Sidney Blumenthal, so I give it creedence. There's a bit more there, but it is more "characterized" than this.

5 Comments:

  • Great, so not only is W being stubborn and pissing on the public, but also playing the rebellious child that is determined not to give in to the parent. Grow up already!

    By Blogger zen, at 9:57 AM  

  • I'm prone to venture into the oedipal mess that is our president from time to time, but you could also make a political argument for Bush keeping Rumsfeld.

    Not that I think it's a good idea, I think he should be gone yesterday, but a repudiation of Rumsfeld would put to question the whole war.(Again, which it should be.) And the political fallout would be worse than keeping a subpar Rumsfeld on staff. Of course, that would assume that in this White House, politics trumps policy, morality, and everything else.

    That's what I was trying to get at by calling Blumenthal's piece characterizing. The petulant child is not the only possible factor. There's also an argument that Rumsfeld is being kept around enacting poor war execution for sheerly political reasons.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 11:57 AM  

  • great point.

    By Blogger zen, at 2:26 PM  

  • Very interesting stuff. I'd give every dime I have to get GHWB drunk and ask him what he thinks of the current situation(s).

    By Blogger Bravo 2-1, at 12:46 PM  

  • Me, too. Because I never liked Bush Sr.'s foreign policy(that whole latin America/Iran contra thing,) but at least he knew what he was doing. I would love to hear the realist Bush Sr.'s comments, although I'm not sure I'd like to see him drunk.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 3:24 PM  

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