Don't Resign, Mr. Rumsfeld (George Will is anal, prissy… and wrong-headed!)

Town Hall ^ | May 12, 2004 | Tony Blankley [Creators Syndicate]

[quidnunc]

Mr. George F. Will has written a column on Secretary Rumsfeld that is thoughtful, elegantly constructed, historically allusive — and wrong. While not quite being willing to spit it out, he leads his readers — and presumably his prime targeted reader, Mr. Rumsfeld himself — to the precipice, with the pregnant implication that Mr. Rumsfeld should jump. Noble resignation is the theme of Mr. Will's column. At this moment, that is as bad advice as an honorable person can give a public official. Mr. Rumsfeld should keep his bottom firmly in his secretarial chair, not for his own sake but for the sake of his president and the national interest.

Mr. Will's abstract argument, in a nutshell, is that: 1) Americans should not flinch from the facts; 2) empire is about domination, and the act of dominating tends to corrupt; 3) there should be a penalty for failure in office, or such failures will proliferate; 4) our response to the prison scandal should be proportional to the transgression; 5) America needs an ethic of resignation from public office; and 6) no man is indispensable.

Numbers 1, 2 and 4, above, are right; No. 3 is sometimes the case, No. 6 is demonstrably wrong; and this is a damn fool time to propose No. 5.

For those of us who dabble in ideas, we are always in danger of falling into intellectual narcissism — that is, we fall so in love with the gorgeousness of our idea that we fail to measure it against the brass tacks of reality. Mr. Will, ever the Tory intellectual, has fallen in love with the British and Continental tradition of honorable resignation from high office. I agree with him — it is a useful and highly ethical tradition. But it is not an American tradition. And in his desire to see Donald Rumsfeld begin that tradition, he misjudges the political and policy consequences.

-snip-

[MNJohnnie]

Democrat Senators now have American blood on their hands

Well it has happened. The dangerous demagogary of the Democrat Party leadership, and the DNC directed "News" Media's hyperventilation over the Iraqi Prisoner abuse,has now lead to the execution of an American Hostage in Iraq. The current political grandstanding by Democratic Party leaders, cheerlead by the "mainstream news media", is directly responsible for this death. The Democratic Senator Leaders are an embarassment to their States, their Offices and themselves. There is now American Blood on the hands of the Democratic Leadership from John Kerry to Mark Dayton. Despicable is too gentle a word to discribe the political power whores that run today's Democrat Party.

[Petronski]

Here we see George Will
letting everything hang loose.

[Ann Archy]

George Will...Bob Novak....PANSYIES!!!

[ladyinred]

Mr. Will's abstract argument, in a nutshell, is that: 1) Americans should not flinch from the facts; 2) empire is about domination, and the act of dominating tends to corrupt; 3) there should be a penalty for failure in office, or such failures will proliferate; 4) our response to the prison scandal should be proportional to the transgression; 5) America needs an ethic of resignation from public office; and 6) no man is indispensable.

Is he talking about Bill Clinton?

[olde north church]

I shall coin a phrase and identify them: CPCs - Cocktail Party Conservatives. The only thing they are to the right of is the sofa beside them.
They want to be liked.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

Couldn't have put it better myself. Except Will only wears a monocle and tophat when he REALLY cuts loose!

[marron]

Rumsfeld is our Minister of War. His authority and his tenure in office must stand or fall by his ability to lead us in war.

He is responsible for what the troops do in theater, including the prison guards, which means that it falls to him to identify the problems and deal with them. We don't throw out our War Ministers when problems surface, we appoint him for the very purpose of dealing with those problems as they arise.

A prison scandal is embarrassing and has possibly deadly consequences, and I expect Rum to deal with it smartly and aggressively. I don't expect him to stand down right at the very moment things require his attention. You don't side-line a Patton for slapping a shirker and you don't sideline a Rumsfeld because a couple of guards out at the point of the spear got bored on night shift. You jail the problem guards, let JAG take it from there, and get back to your primary business of smiting the enemy.

[The Scourge of Yazid]

If it was up to our political leaders, sidelining generals like Patton, MacArthur, et. al., would be the option of first resort, not last. I can't recall a truly bold general who was rewarded for his service to this country.

[Tamzee]

George Will lost me long ago...

[Al Simmons]

George Will is that most laughable of all political creatures, an upper class TWIT. (Cue the Monty Python "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch).

He should have stuck to writing about base ball.

[veronica]

What the heck happened to George Will??

[driftless]

From reading a number of Will's latest articles, it appears George is going a little weak in the knees. He's succumbing to the Richard Cohen school of journalism whereby when some bad things happen, everyone should panic. I still respect Will, but with his anti-death penalty stance and this gloomy the-sky-is-falling screed, George looks like he needs a long vacation and attendance at the Ronald Reagan Institute for sucking it up and staying the course

[The Scourge of Yazid]

You mean you don't respect men wearing bowties? (sarcasm intended)

[jocon307]

"What the heck happened to George Will??"

There, you took the words right off of my keyboard. This would be a fine time to start a round of "honorable resignations", NOT!

We need to keep Bush & Co. in there, hope he'll dump Tenant (there's a man who should have resigned!), drain the swamp at foggy bottom (fat chance, but another poster said he'd do it after re-election), and get ready to elect an even meaner and more war-mongering president in 2008. Unless of course the Islamo-facists give up during the next four years, which I doubt they will.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Hi, marron. I too compare the attack on Rumsfeld to that on Patton; it's far from obvious that we have anyone on the bench who would worth changing to.

Worse,

Whether he chose to leave on his own volition or was fired, the world would see it as President Bush firing him . . . We are not losing the Iraq struggle. But if Rumsfeld resigns, the project would inevitably collapse for failure of political will

[proud American in Canada]

"From reading a number of Will's latest articles, it appears George is going a little weak in the knees."

I've gotten that impression too. Regarding Iraq, his recent columns are invariably pessimistic.

[Captain Kirk]

CPC? Are you talking about armchair warriors?

[billbears]

Nothing happened to George Will. Nothing happened to Robert Novak. Conservatives have, for the most part, stayed the course. It's 'conservatives' that have gone off the beaten track

[veronica]

Robert Novak has always been an isolationist with faintly anti-semitic views. Will is nothing like that.