Status Quo

An eighth general has come forward to ask for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. I'm not naive or optimistic enough to expect them to get their wish, though. The Decider stands by his man.

Josh Marshall looks at Bush's refusal to make any substantive changes in his inner sanctum-

The president is stuck on telling us that Don Rumsfeld has done a bang up job as defense secretary.

And even with the rising chorus of retired generals calling for Rumsfeld's ouster, isn't this just displacement? Don Rumsfeld works for the president. This is the president's administration in more than just the obvious, literal sense. These are his policies. It's his denial, his indifference to the failure of his policies and the incompetence of his subordinates. As David Remnick put it recently in The New Yorker, the man in the Oval Office "does not much believe in science or, for that matter, in any information that disturbs his prejudices, his fantasies, or his sleep."

The president is accountable, not just in the sense that the president is by definition accountable, but because these failures are his failures. They stem from his weaknesses -- his inability to summon the courage to make tough decisions, his addiction to sycophants, his penchant for denial.

We'd be fools to expect any change when the president lacks the guts to recognize his failures let alone try to fix them.

What he said.

[PS- I have been engaging in a mini-debate with a commenter who disagreed my assessment that Republicans are actually the ones controlling this country right now George W. Bush is the worst President our nation has ever had. It's an interesting back-and-forth if you have the time to read it. Needless to say, I stand by my assessment.]

[PPS- Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski states that an attack on Iran could be an impeachable offense.]