Rummie Gone - Et Tu George?

Today the right and left of the blogosphere united, not to praise Donald Rumsfeld but to bury him. Rumsfeld has resigned, at his third try, as Secretary of Defense. Just days ago George Bush was telling the world that Rummie would see out the rest of the administration's term. Then came a Democrat victory in the midterms. Bush could no longer resist the temptation to join everyone else in sticking a dagger in Don - this one in the back and for purely political purposes.

A commenter at Phil Carter's Intel Dump got it exactly right.

surely removing Rumsfeld is just an easy way of changing course in Iraq without blaming the president? They've got the Baker review to given them the intellectual credibility for something different and Rummie to blame for the original plan not working. Plus, Rummie gets to play the "fell on my sword" on private Republic salons to admiring nods from right-wing matrons for the rest of his days. It's a win-win-win-win-win.

Even so, there will be few who cry for Rummie and his many errors - such as the body-armor scandal that cost the ruin of so many young lives. The neocons least of all - the PNAC crowd had a fall out with their ex-signator back in November 2004, blaming him for the failure of their dumb ideas, and have been after his blood since.

So now Bush has nominated ex-CIA director Robert M. Gates. More on him later, I hope, including mention of his ties to the Bush family, Ken Lay, Lawrence Eagleburger and the Iran-Contra scandal.

For now though, I will note that we now have a Bush military man in charge of the CIA and Bush hopes to have his CIA man in charge of the military. What does that say about the Decider In Chief's plans to destroy the traditional separation between the Pentagon and the intelligence community on the way to making the U.S. a total surveillance state?