Some years ago, in a playful moment immortalized on video, George Bush, in the days before he was President, gave the half-a-peace sign you see at left to a videographer.
Today, he’s President, and while his body language may have changed, his attitude apparently hasn’t.
Here’s his latest comment on calls that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should be replaced, courtesy of CNN:
Despite a practice of not usually commenting on personnel moves, the president told reporters Tuesday that his vote of confidence for Rumsfeld was an effort to stamp out speculation about his status.
“You can understand why, because we’ve got people’s reputations at stake,” Bush said of his aversion to speculation about personnel matters.
“And on Friday I stood up and said, ‘I don’t appreciate the speculation about Don Rumsfeld; he’s doing a fine job; I strongly support him.'”
Pressed to respond to critics who say he is ignoring the advice of respected former military commanders, Bush vigorously stood by Rumsfeld.
“I listen to all voices, but mine is the final decision,” he said. “And Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He’s not only transforming the military, he’s fighting a war on terror. He’s helping us fight a war on terror. I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld.
“I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I’m the decider, and I decide what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.”
So there you have it. Yes, there are voices, front pages, ominous rumblings from some parts of the GOP itself, editorials and columnists. But in the end GWB is “the decider” and HE decides what’s best.
Who needs the input of the former retired military officers — any of them?
His comment pretty well negates the argument that Rumsfeld made that it was only a small number of people who wanted him out and the rest supported him. So it really didn’t MATTER how many wanted Rumsfeld out — or to stay.
It could have been 6,552.5 (in case a midget slipped in) either way. The President is “the decider” and knows what’s best. What do the military know about the military? Any of them?
And that bothersome speculation and those pesky voices? Why read or listen to any of it? Bush is the “decider” and knows “what’s best.” Why bother to read Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne:
For all his mistakes, Rumsfeld is not some alien creature operating as a loner sabotaging the otherwise reasonable policies of his bosses. President Bush is the commander in chief. Vice President Cheney is on record as having made outlandishly optimistic predictions before the war started about how swimmingly everything would go.
Rumsfeld is Bush’s guy, which is why the president resists firing him. Letting Rumsfeld go would amount to acknowledging how badly the administration has botched Iraq.
He doesn’t understand. Bush is the decider and he knows what’s best. There’s never any CYA, at all. Bush KNOWS what’s best — sort of like when he looked into Vladmir Putin’s eyes and saw Putin’s soul. He’s looked into Rumsfeld’s, too.
And wouldn’t you know it? David Broder, the quintessential voice of moderate columnists, is also nipping at Bush’s heels. He doesn’t get it, either when he wastes his time writing:
Several months ago, when Rep. John Murtha, the Marine Corps veteran and longtime Democratic advocate for military preparedness, spoke out on the Iraq war, I received an interesting phone call from the Pentagon. When Murtha advocated a fundamental reassessment of American strategy in the war, including an early redeployment of U.S. troops to neighboring countries, I noted that he had spent many hours visiting wounded veterans of that war at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval hospitals. A warmhearted, emotional man, Murtha was responding, I suggested, to what he had experienced in those hospital wards.
The unsolicited caller from the Pentagon identified himself by name and rank, then said, “This is a private call. I am not speaking officially. But I read your column, and I think it is important for you to know that Jack Murtha knows us very well and speaks for many of us.”
We’ve said the same thing as Broder here repeatedly, but then what do we know? We wrote it, not George Bush and Bush is the “decider” who knows “what’s best.”
But wouldn’t you know it? The naive Broder STILL just doesn’t get it so he goes on to write these paragraphs, which end with a great punchline:
[Marine Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold, the former director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff]makes it plain that he is not advocating immediate withdrawal from Iraq unless the Iraqi political factions fail to form a government and fall into civil war. But he insists new leadership is needed in the Pentagon.
His words echo those of another retired Marine general, Anthony Zinni, whose criticisms were quoted in an earlier column of mine. And there are other notable leaders in civilian life, outside the White House, who have been making the same points publicly for months and even years. Sen. John McCain, a Republican, and Sen. Joe Biden, a Democrat, have been in and out of Iraq more than a dozen times since the start of the war. Both of them supported the war and oppose withdrawal. But both have said repeatedly since their first visits that they have never found an officer of any rank who has not said, privately and urgently, “We need more troops to complete this mission.”
Rumsfeld and President Bush insist that the manpower and strategy have been exactly what the commanders in the field thought best, but now general after general is speaking out to challenge that claim. The situation cries out for serious congressional oversight and examination; hearings are needed as soon as Congress returns. These charges have to be answered convincingly — or Rumsfeld has to go.
Congressional oversight? Who writes Broder’s material? Jay Leno? Just another pesky group of noisy voices. Doesn’t Congress get it? Bush is “the decider” and he “knows what’s best.”
Don’t any of these folks understand what democracy is all about?
UPDATE: Watch the VIDEO HERE.
SOME OTHERS COMMENTING ON THIS STORY WHO NEED TO LEARN THAT BUSH IS THE DECIDER INCLUDE:
Ron Beasley, Digby
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.