Just getting going here at the Video Election Central of C&L, but House Majority Leader John Boehner looks to be doing his party proud today. On THIS WEEK, he was asked if Rumsfeld should be fired:
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Download STEPHANOPOULOS: Some Democrats are saying fixed timetable for withdrawal. Not all. Let me just ask one more question on this.Your own senators, I said Mike DeWine thinks Rumsfeld has to go. Do you agree?
BOEHNER: I think Donald Rumsfeld is the best thing that'shappened to the Pentagon in 25 years. This Pentagon and our military needs a transformation. And I think Donald Rumsfeld's the only man in America who knows where the bodies are buried at the Pentagon, has enough experience to help transform that institution.
BOEHNER: Let's not take the problems in Iraq, the tough fight that we're in there, and blame it on anyone. We're in a tough fight. Al Qaeda is doing everything they can to disrupt our efforts in Iraq, to disrupt the new government, creating more violence than anyone can imagine. And defeating al Qaeda there is important, because if we were to pull out before we win, we will embolden every terrorist in every corner of the world, and then instead of fighting them in Iraq, we'll be fighting them on every street in America.
Suddenly---Al Qaeda will be in our streets if we finally do the right thing and pull out of Iraq. If that were the case Mr. Tobacco, then it would be just another failure for the Bush administraiton. What a foolish thing to say and one that is riddled with desperation.
What Rumsfeld’s own military has had to say about his leadership:
Major General John Batiste – Commander, 1st Division in Iraq: “Rumsfeld and his team turned what should have been a deliberate victory in Iraq into a prolonged challenge.” [National Journal, 5/6/06]
General Anthony Zinni – Commander, U.S. Central Command: “We are paying the price for the lack of credible planning, or the lack of a plan. Ten years worth of planning were thrown away.” [National Journal, 5/6/06]
Major General Charles H. Swannack, Jr. – Commander, 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq: “I do not believe Secretary Rumsfeld is the right person to fight that war, based on his absolute failures in managing the war against Saddam in Iraq.” [New York Times, 4/16/06]
Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper – First President, Marine Corps University: “If I was President I would have relieved him three years ago.” [The Washington Post, 4/15/06]
Lieutenant General Greg Newbold – Top Operations Officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff: “What we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures.” [Time Magazine, 4/17/06]
Major General Paul Eaton – Led initial effort to create Iraqi Army: “Two and a half more years of that leadership was too long for my nation, for my Army, and for my family.” [National Journal, 5/6/06]
Lieutenant General John Riggs –Director, Objective Force Task Force: “They only need the military advice when it satisfies their agenda.” [National Public Radio, 4/13/06]
