You ever see a six-year-old steal something? You say “did you take that candy?” And the kid says “NO!” while holding his hands behind his back. And you say “I SAW you take the candy. What’s in your hands?” and the kid just looks up at you and says “NOTHING”.

Bush is like that. Except you’re not bigger than him, you can’t send him to camp david without his supper, or ground him, or cut off his allowance. So he believes that if he just keeps saying “everything’s fine, not gonna change a thing, we’ll see it through to victory” right up until the end of his term, then he figures he never got caught. So he doesn’t fire Rumsfeld, he doesn’t change anything, because that would be an admission that things didn’t work out so great.

But it all means that when the bill comes due, it’s gonna be a whopper!

mikey

Mikey, you’re the man. I’m going to be using that analogy a lot.

The reason they don’t fire Rummy is simple: Bush would be acknowledging that he made a mistake.

I live in Los Angeles, and work in the entertainment industry, so I meet very few wingnuts. But recently I have been on a tour, and we have a wingnut bus driver. He’s pretty much a redneck asshole, and a shitty bus driver to boot. Being around this man makes my brain hurt. Those of you who live in Wingnuttistan, I don’t know how you do it.

Those of you who live in Wingnuttistan, I don’t know how you do it.

It helps if you stay in the bunker with Fox News playing 24/7, poring over back issues of Guns ‘n Ammo and chanting “Failure is not an option.”

Alternatively, Rummy’s resignation might be a nice October surprise if polls look bad for the GOP this fall.

No, the only semi-sensible explanation for why Bush hasn’t fired Rummy yet is because letting Rummy keep his job is the ultimate “BWAH-HA-HA!!� response to all his critics.

So, Bush = Patterico? Letting him be in charge of the NSA is really a double plus ungood idea.

It is awfully hard for a Grand Jury to subpoena a sitting Secretary of Defense.

I think mdhatter has the right of it. I think once he is no longer SecDef, he might be forced to answer questions like “Who, exactly, ordered and approved the use of torture?”

Last night none other than super, duper, albeit fake showmanship crazy Michael ‘Mr. Right Wing Tough Guy We Need To Kill all the Arabs and Muslims’ Savage called for Rumsfeld to be fired. Seems that Savage disapproves of Rumsfeld thinking he could invade and occupy Iraq successfully with a small, light force, and now Iraq is just a disaster we have to get out of.

I see everyone’s labouring under the delusion that the never-elected Bush is in charge of anything.

*sigh*…As soon as Exxon realises Rumsfeld is a liability, he’ll be gone.

This explains, say, John Bolton and Condoleeza Rice, too.

Those of you who live in Wingnuttistan, I don’t know how you do it.

I stay home a lot. It’s not really a sacrifice, since there’s nowhere worth going. When I do go out, I just pretend I’m insane so no one will insist on inviting me to their church.

Hillary may be laboring under the delusion that the purpose of the Iraq invasion was to establish some kind of functioning government to replace Saddam, and reap the benefits of a democracy that is a friend of the US.

Neocons aren’t that stupid and they aren’t that idealistic. Perhaps Hillary might consider that the current condition of Iraq is precisely what the Bush administration wants, and by that criteria Rumsfeld is performing perfectly.

Some writers in Israel, for example, have been arguing for a long time that nations like Iraq should be “dissolved” and reduced to weak ethnic mini-states, effectively gutting what they call “Arab nationalism.” They have this same dream for Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt as well.

And a brewing “civil war” is a nice pretext not only to keep US forces on the scene, but also to increase our deployments and spend lots more money. We can also blame it all on those Iranian bad guys, and juice up the Fox audience for some more action. Do I hear “strategic bombing offensive” in the background?

Those of you who live in Wingnuttistan, I don’t know how you do it.

Mostly I try to pretend I’d never read the essay Gavin links to. It is indeed excellent; and I’m afraid that Mark Ames has a better grasp on human nature than I. In the dark days of November 2004, it was the only thing that made sense.

Living where I do, though; I’ve had to forget all that and concentrate on the good things about my neighbors. And be very careful about who I date. ‘Cause they’ll lie about their voting records…the bastards.

Now wait just a minute. Who does Hillary think she is? The Decider? Well Hillary, last time I checked, George Bush is the Decider.
He hears the voices, and he reads the front page, and he knows the speculation. But he’s the Decider, and he decides what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense. So sayeth the Decider.

Let’s put that in verse:

He hears the voices,
He reads the front page.
He knows the speculation,
But he’s the Decider!

Well, that should settle that!

Didja see where Rumsfeld said the increased violence in Iraq was due tothe weather?

http://empireofthesenseless.blogspot.com/2006/08/thats-not-really-funny.html

If Hillary can help remove this loon, more power to her.

Does anyone really believe that W(uss) Bush actually has any decision-making power, say, control over ANYTHING?! (despite his alcoholic delusion that he is, in his mind, The Decidificator.) He’s the idiot scion of an enfeebled blood line who’s simply been given a (rather extraordinary) internship by his father’s business cronies. Fire Rumsfeld?! When Cheney and/or Rumsfeld are in the room, W(uss) goes sits in his high chair and minds his manners.

But who else could they get would be dumb enough to front for these policies?