Rumsfeld had nothing to do with the screwups at the prison, which were mostly the responsibility of a lady Brigadier General who has failed to keep proper discipline in her command. If anyone is to blame it's clinton, for his policy of promoting incompetents in order to meet the PC quotas and please his liberal base.
Sorry to disagree, but he's the top man (or person) in the chain-of-command short of the president himself. All he has to do each day is run the war, etc. As the boss, he is fully responsible for the prison atrocities,as all bosses in all organizations are, and particularly because he heads an organization where accountability goes right up the chain of command. He chose to be SecDef, so he gets both the prerogatives and the penalties. He is also a well-educated man who perfectly well knew the ways of the world--and certainly knew about the many prisoner and obedience to authority studies that every university graduate learns about in psychology 101. The president knows them too, but he has had other obligations during this time frame. Rummie only has to run the DoD. Sorry, but Rummie has to go. IMHO it would be better if Cheney went as well. Why should a good president go down at a critical time just to indulge a couple of exceedingly wealthy old farts who have failed to cut the mustard lately, though in the long run, and broadly speaking, they have previously been as good or better than we usually get in the offices they currently hold. Still, when you gotta go, you gotta go--and oughta go without invitation. George Tenet shows the way. The line between being an asset and baggage is a difficult one to identify, but one would hope that Rumsfield and Cheney will figure out that they have become baggage. If Bush loses, they go, anyway. But why should Bush go because of them? Rumsfield and Cheney would be easily replaced and their successors would almost certainly be able and exciting, with ability, and without the baggage that Rumsfield and Cheney have had almost from the start.
On the other hand, at this point the only replacement for Bush has to be Kerry or Nader. Who wants that as the alternative to Bush (Rumsfield and Cheney?)