House Editorial: The American people have spoken
Secretary Rumsfeld’s career, President Bush’s mandate the latest casualties in the Iraq War
Posted on November 9, 2006

With former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation Wednesday, the Bush administration has finally acknowledged its accountability to the American public.

After the last two years in which Bush operated with an assumed blank check — a Republican-controlled Congress was supposed to represent a mandate from the American people. The midterm election results from Tuesday sent a clear message to Bush that the American people were taking that mandate away, and he reacted appropriately by announcing at a press conference Wednesday that, after a discussion between the two, they decided it would be best to “change leadership in the Pentagon.”

Of the many midterm campaign points, none was more universal than support or condemnation of the Iraq war, and, with even Republicans fleeing from the president’s policies and decisions in order to cling to what seats they could, it was impossible to miss the dissatisfaction the public felt with the war.

Bush’s press conference betrayed a man at war with his emotions — he was clearly angered with the election results, and rightly so. What was impressive, however, was that he broke character enough to admit that the public had lost confidence with his policies and, finally, that he was willing to change the course he had so emphatically called on the country to stay.

Bush’s nomination to replace Rumsfeld, however, may not put to bed the public’s concerns over leadership in the White House. Robert Gates is a former George H.W. Bush appointee as director of the CIA and was a career CIA employee before that. He was allegedly involved in the Iran-Contra scandal and, since leaving the CIA, has been Interim Dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. As such, he is clearly not a stranger to the Bushes or Washington politics, though time will tell whether he is able to separate himself and provide the new leadership the Department of Defense sorely needs.

It is commendable that Bush was able to swallow his pride and admit that there was a need for leadership. Hopefully Gates, despite his background, will bring an infusion of new ideas and strategies that will end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.