Donald Rumsfeld is taking the hit for the GOP losses in the midterms. The Bush White House is thereby retreating from a confrontation with the Pentagon bureaucracy, just as it retreated from a confrontation with the intelligence behemoth. My reading is that Bush and Cheney are determined to achieve Rummy's policy objectives: reform the military and winning in Iraq.

I have the greatest personal admiration for Donald Rumsfeld. This is his second round of highly visible public service. In the first, he served as Gerald Ford's Sewcretary of Defense and then Chief of Staff, when the United States was reeling from the Nixon resignation —— which is retrospect was created by the Left and its allies in the FBI. Rumsfeld provided a steady hand when it was most needed.

When 9/11 happened, Rumsfeld helped rescue victims of the suicide plane that was crashed into the Pentagon. It is typical of the man. He is steady, reliable, clear and articulate.

Rumsfeld may be one of the last American leaders of the WW Two generation. We may not see his like again. 

James Lewis   11 8 06