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Weekend
Edition
November 11 / 12, 2006
Blaming Don
Throwing
Rumsfeld Under the Bus
By LAWRENCE R. VELVEL
Donald Rumsfeld should have been gotten
rid of years ago. He has messed up for a long time. But in
the last analysis it is not Rumsfeld who is responsible for the
debacle in Iraq. It is his boss, Bush, who desired to pursue
Rumsfeld's policies and who let the disaster occur. It is the
man who doesn't read, doesn't elicit conflicting opinions, gets
rid of those who offer them, is obstinate, bullies people, until
just a few days ago was determined to "stay the course,"
is grossly dishonest, lied about Rumsfeld until Tuesday by saying
Rumsfeld would stay (a lie ignored by almost all in the media),
and is, in general, a 60 year old overgrown frat boy. (Being
a frat boy may be okay to some extent in one's teens or early
20's (I was one too in fact), but when you're in your late 50's
or early 60's?)
But having said until a few
days ago that Rumsfeld will remain, no sooner were the election
results in, then Bush decided that Don must go. Don would be
thrown under the bus for what Bush himself allowed and stridently
supported. For Bush to throw Rumsfeld under the bus was very
dishonorable. Dishonorable -- there is no other word for it.
It was also typical of Bush.
Having lived a life in which his chestnuts have always been
pulled out of the fire of failure by daddy's friends and wannabe
friends (Robert Gates anyone?), Bush is not accustomed to taking
blame for his mistakes and eff-ups. He is, to put it bluntly,
a 60 year old spoiled brat. So, due to the election results,
he decided to pin the tail on Rumsfeld, to try to shift all the
blame to Rumsfeld, and Rumsfeld had to go lest George be blamed
for the Iraq debacle.
I know, I know. By getting
rid of Rummy and hiring Gates, Bush supposedly was signaling
openness to working with the Democrats, to rethinking the Iraq
policy, and all the rest of it. Indeed, turning off his combative,
frat boy, I'm-gonna-smash-your-face-in persona, he turned on,
once again, his good-old-boy, I'm-really-a-good-guy, I'm-all-charm
persona. The latter persona has worked before, in 2000 and 2004
-- would it be too cynical to say it has fooled people
before? -- so maybe it would work again. And George, of course,
is now suddenly desperate to make it look as if he is
the reasonable one and to make the Democrats look like the hard
guys, the bad guys, if the Executive and the Congress do not
work together effectively in the next two years. (There is
2008 to think about, after all.) As well, Bush clearly would
like to ward off the possibility of impeachment proceedings directed
at him and Cheney, and what better way to do that than to present
oneself as a reasonable guy, a good guy, not the jerk he has
been for the last few years.
Meanwhile, the Democrats, to
make themselves look good, are falling for this or at
least playing along with it. They are making all kinds of noises
about working with the President, about making nice with George,
etc. (They too are thinking about 2008.) Frankly, this turns
one's stomach even if it is the expectable thing for politicians
to do and say. Impeachment, withdrawal from Iraq and a host
of other crucial issues -- including improving the lives
of our military people, incidentally -- should be very high in
the pecking order and should be focused on by Democrats. (Let's
hear it for impeachment hearings that ought to be held by John
Conyers.)
In playing along with Bush's
new -- or, more accurately, renewed -- nice guy persona,
the Democrats will set themselves up for a big fall if they fail
to keep a couple of things in mind. One is that the people of
this country want a major change in what the Executive Branch
is doing. They want the Democrats to accomplish things, to be
sure, but they did not vote the Democrats in so that this country's
abysmal (and frankly even criminal) foreign policy should be
continued in Iraq or elsewhere. With regard to Iraq, it is possible
that Bush might end up using -- might even intend to use -- the
new Robert Gates regime to pursue the forlorn (McCainesque) tactic
of trying to do things "better" in Iraq rather than
getting out of the mess as fast as possible. If the Democrats
fall for this hopeless idea, they too will receive and deserve
extensive, bitter blame in 2008.
Another point the Democrats
must keep in mind is the old concept of fool me once, shame on
you, fool me twice, shame on me. The Democrats should never
forget the kind of person Bush really is. For tactical
purposes, he is making sure to come across now as all sweetness
and light, as Mr. Reasonable, etc. But as we have found out
before, he is in reality an ignorant bully, not a gentle fellow
of sweet reason. If he gets a chance, he will once again stomp
on the Democrats' heads, and call them (and lots of the rest
of us) traitors, and will try to pin all blame for everything
wrong on them (and lots of the rest of us), just as he previously
did and just as he now has done with Rumsfeld, whom he dishonorably
has thrown under the bus for a policy that Bush approved, that
Bush vigorously defended up until the election, and for
which Bush bears responsibility.
I don't know whether one can
say of all bullies, at all times and places, that once a bully,
always a bully. But I seriously think that to say anything else
in Bush's case would be bullsomethingelse. Ditto regarding his
dishonesty.
Lawrence R. Velvel is the Dean of Massachusetts School
of Law. He can be reached at velvel@mslaw.edu.
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