Daily Archives: May 6, 2004
Chastising rumsfeld II
Jane Galt has stirred up a hornet’s nest of disagreement with this call for rummies resignation:
the only way to repair the damage is for responsibility to be taken at the highest levels. And not the fake “I’m accountable but I’m not going to, y’know, be called to account” responsibility of Janet Reno, but real, honest to God, “Somethine went wrong on my watch, and I will suffer the penalty” responsibility. For the good of his country, it is time for Don Rumsfeld to go.
Her commenters are near unanimous in their disagreement and there is a lot of other disagreement as well, e.g., James Joyner. I certainly agree with Jane that responsibility must be taken to the highest levels (see previous post) and I’m sure you can find others who agree with one aspect or another of her call.
One of the arguments that has been made against the call for resignation is that cabinet heads like rummie are too far away from the action to be held accountable though both Skippy (via the Progress Report) and the Washington Post call this into question with respect to rummie.
Brian Doss also works through this argument and ultimately comes to the conclusion that there just might be a positive light at the end of his executive hari kari discussion. Long quote follows:
Chastising rumsfeld
The culture of an american governing administration is ultimately set by the president.
bush’s appearance on Arab television and the public ackowledgement of his alleged displeasure with rumsfeld are fairly transparent attempts to deflect our eyes from where the buck stops.
It is long past time for bush to start publically acknowledging his responsibility.
Via The Rittenhouse Review.
Update: Jacob Levy argues:
If Bush genuinely thinks Rumsfeld failed him and failed to fulfill his own responsibilities, then surely the time has finally come to demand Rumsfeld’s resignation. If not, then an authorized public humiliation is unjustified. This looks like Bush attempting to deflect responsbility away from himself– “The buck stops with that guy”– while simultaneously refusing to demand that Rumsfeld take responsibility. It’s petulant and childish.