Watcher of Weasels:

Dejection 2006

Republicans losing control of both the House and the Senate was to be expected I suppose, but I didn't expect to lose the White House too.  Rumsfeld resigns the day after the election...  if it had to happen, then why not do it a month ago, when it could have done some good?  Why did Bush go out of his way to insist that Rummy will stay on, when he really planned to dump him all along...  why miss such an obvious opportunity to pull the rug out from under Democratic criticism of the war in Iraq? If the concern was that it would have been seen as an October surprise, then why choose to do it after the November elections instead of in early September?  Maybe the answer lies in his chosen replacement...  why Robert Gates?

You can certainly count Frank Gaffney Jr. among those who see this as a terrible choice: “Gates is a seasoned technocrat, a career intelligence officer and an advocate of Baker-style ‘realism’ in foreign policy.  Unfortunately, there is nothing realistic about believing, for example, that the United States can safely negotiate with Iran -- something both Baker and Gates espouse.  The legitimacy and time this will buy the mullahocracy will translate into threatening Iranian nuclear forces, ballistic missiles and terrorist infrastructure with which to try to realize Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's ambition to achieve ‘a world without America.’ That is a ‘vision-thing’ all too familiar from the Bush I team, one that is predictable from a Baker regency which will supplant the Bush II-Rumsfeld national-security agenda and engender strategic perils the United States can ill-afford.”

Seems to me that Gaffney himself would have been a much better pick, but if Bush is still listening to the likes of Andrew Card, then I guess we should just be thankful that we didn't somehow end up with Secretary of Defense Harriet Miers.

On top of all this, we have Bush touting his comprehensive immigration reform amnesty for illegals crap again, and floating stupid ideas like raising the minimum wage.  So, I guess we can look forward to having two years of a lame duck president obsessed with preserving his "compassionate conservative" legacy...  wonderful.

You know what would have really been great?  Instead of Rumsfeld's resignation, I would have liked to see Bush step down instead...  then we would at least get two years of President Cheney in exchange for losing both houses of Congress.  He may have no interest in running in 2008, but I think Cheney would be willing to serve for a couple of years...  and I trust him to choose a good replacement for himself, so long as Bush and Andrew Card can both be kept the hell out of that decision.  The last thing we need right now is to have Harriet Miers as Vice President.

Update: And will someone please fire Karl Rove already?  His idiotic obsession with "metrics" and the logistics of getting out the vote is a big part of what went wrong here...  the Republican Party has become obsessed with holding on to political power for the sake of power alone.  It isn't enough merely to want to win, you also have to deserve to win...  so, why don't you try earning our votes for a change, eh?  Here's a hint: try paying attention to your own base once in a while.

Update: Now we apparently have Bush and Rove pushing for a pro-amnesty RNC chairman who would for some reason remain serving in the Senate...  and, unfortunately, I doubt that we will see any significant changes in House leadership either.  If this kind of stupidity keeps up, then 2008 is gonna be a bloodbath that makes 2006 seem like a happy memory.