Donnie-brook Draws to a Close: Rumsfeld Should Resign Today

If Donald Rumsfeld can make it to midnight tonight, he'll emerge from the Rumsfeld Retrospective unbeaten. On May 5th, I said that Rumsfeld would resign in 10 days, and it looks like that's not going to happen... at least it's not going to happen yet.

As something of a Yellow Dog Democrat, it's easy for me to critique Rumsfeld & the rest of the Bush Administration. I find it too easy to assault the terrible decisions that they have been saddled with during these post-9/11 days. The fear that continues to grip the soul of America will ebb, but it still clouds our decision-making, 32 months after bin Laden threw his surprise punch. They woke up surprised and shocked on 9/12, just like I did.

In these circumstances, Rumsfeld et al. believed that they had to remake their positions from scratch. This It's-a-New-World mentality meant that everything -- goals, partners, strategy, morality, ethics -- was up for grabs. To their (and our credit) there were a lot of mistakes that we didn't make. There were bridges we didn't burn. We weren't paralyzed and inactive. The further we got from 9/11, it seemed that we started learning.

However, 6 months from the presidential election, it seems that every days brings fewer and fewer reasons to retain the administration that architected the post-9/11 period in America.

By November, I hope the scales of 9/11 fear will have fallen from the eyes of the majority of the electoral college. (I already know that like last time, the majority of voters will make the right decision.) I hope that whoever these "undecided voters" are, that they realize that a new administration can wash its hands of the mistakes of the old administration.

4 years ago, the incoming Bush administration decided to abruptly end Clinton's policy toward North Korea. Rather than continue this policy, which they considered appeasement, they elected to deal with North Korea harshly. With this abrupt shift as an example, I encourage you to consider all the policies that a Democratic White House would immediately and dramatically change -- no transition, just immediate change:

• Iraq


• Afghanistan


• The Economy


• Taxes


• Our Relationship With Europe


• How the Executive Branch Encourages America to Think About 9/11


• The Role of the UN & The World At Large


• Our Military


• The Poorest Americans


• The Patriot Act


• How We Want the World To See America

Think about that list. Get your friends & neighbors to think about that list, because these are the issues that have contributed to the hole that we're in.

...and these are the issues about which, on January 20th, 2005, a new administration could say, "We're not going to do it that way anymore."