Rumsfeld Resigns

This afternoon, Donald Rumsfeld walked the plank at the Pentagon. 

As an ex-Congressman (’62 to ’68) he then served as one of the punks in Nixon’s Cabinet.  Nixon held Rumsfeld in such high regard that Nixon was recorded as saying "At least Rummy is tough enough" and "He’s a ruthless little bastard. You can be sure of that."

Then Gerry Ford decided to bring Rumsfeld back as White House Chief of Staff and the 13th Secretary of Defense from ’75 to ’77.  After a stint in private industry at G.D. Searle, where he turned the company around, Rummy joined ABB.  From 1990 to 2001 Rummy sat on the board of ABB out of Zurich, when ABB sold two light water nuclear reactors to North Korea under the 1994 Clinton framework.

Then President JoJo The Idiot Boy got to sit in the big chair.  He brought Rummy along to run Defense, which struck some as odd.  During the Daddy Bush years Rummy didn’t do much.  Well, not much with Daddy Bush, but he was buddies with Dick Cheney and managed to sit on the board of the Carlyle Group with Daddy Bush.

Earlier this year six high-level ranking Pentagon folks called for Rumsfeld to resign.  The list, including General Anthony Zinni, Major-General Paul Eaton, Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, Maj.-Gen. John Batiste, Maj. – Gen John Riggs, even Lt. Gen. Paul van Riper of the Marines, said Runsfeld was not the right person at the Pentagon.

Face it, when your senior military people go public and offer to shove you out of the plane without a parachute, you should take the hint and jump.

Unfortunately, Dubya can’t give Rummy the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  Gerry Ford already did that in 1977 for moving furniture so Gerry wouldn’t trip over the ottoman, or bump into the desk.

The replacement for Rumsfeld?  Some piece of meat from Texas with 26 years in the CIA and head of Texas A & M University George Bush School of Business.  More of the same James Baker/Daddy Bush/Dick Cheney buddies.  This one is named Robert Gates. 

At least one of the Terror Trust is out the door.