The clamor to oust Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wasn’t just limited to retired generals (who were later blasted and demonized by some talk show hosts as they defended the administration): apparently President George Bush The First was trying to find a way to have Rumself spend more time with his family, too.
Sidney Blumenthal writes in Salon:
Former President George H.W. Bush waged a secret campaign over several months early this year to remove Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The elder Bush went so far as to recruit Rumsfeld’s potential replacement, personally asking a retired four-star general if he would accept the position, a reliable source close to the general told me. But the former president’s effort failed, apparently rebuffed by the current president. When seven retired generals who had been commanders in Iraq demanded Rumsfeld’s resignation in April, the younger Bush leapt to his defense. “I’m the decider and I decide what’s best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain,” he said. His endorsement of Rumsfeld was a rebuke not only to the generals but also to his father.
The elder Bush’s intervention was an extraordinary attempt to rescue simultaneously his son, the family legacy and the country. The current president had previously rejected entreaties from party establishment figures to revamp his administration with new appointments. There was no one left to approach him except his father. This effort to pluck George W. from his troubles is the latest episode in a recurrent drama — from the drunken young man challenging his father to go “mano a mano” on the front lawn of the family home in Kennebunkport, Maine, to the father pulling strings to get the son into the Texas Air National Guard and helping salvage his finances from George W.’s mismanagement of Harken Energy. For the father, parental responsibility never ends. But for the son, rebellion continues. When journalist Bob Woodward asked George W. Bush if he had consulted his father before invading Iraq, he replied, “He is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to.”
Yes, there is a huge difference between the kind of Republicanism practiced by the current President and his Dad, as well as the approach to foreign policy. Under Bush I the State Department seemed to have more clout. Colin Powell was an icon; he seemed to be considered by some in the current administration as more of an obstacle and a gadfly.
But Republicans are split on this. To some, George Bush I was that wishy-wash moderate whose lips couldn’t be trusted on taxes and who wasn’t man enough to take Baghdad after the first Gulf War. To some other Americans, Bush I was from the school that respected diplomacy and diplomats and used the military as a tool from strong diplomacy, versus using diplomacy to justify military plans — and someone who took into consideration the nation’s political center.
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.