yes, that's true. but that's not the issue here.
either you stand by someone, or you don't. once Bush made up his mind that Rumsfeld was on the "jettison" list, he should have chosen the best political path.
the way it unfolded last week - was horrible. its as if Pelosi marched out of the white house with Rumsfeld head on a stick. it was disgusting to see him taken out like that, and then see the president in the white house the next day with Dick "our soldiers are like the nazis" Durbin.
I'm with you on that. Why make your party's defeat look even worse than it needs to be ? Or, why look like a Pelosi toe-sucker when it would be better to go down fighting ?
I agree that it was awful, but I suspect that Rumsfeld himself may have offered to leave. I think it was very ill-advised; I think he's done a good job, although he perhaps could have been more aggressive, but I think Bush was happy with him. I think he came to see himself as a liability, and he's very much a team player. The way Bush handled this actually made me think that he really hadn't planned on having Rumsfeld leave, except that it was something declared by RUmsfeld at the last moment.
Both of them have been under attack by the press for several years now, and because the war appears to be (a) nothing threatening the average American on these shores and (b) a political stunt motivated by Bush's desire to take over the universe (I'm giving the media view, not mine), I think Rumsfeld simply couldn't take it anymore.
The flipside is why leave Rummy twisitng in the wind for the next month while the drum beats for his head grew louder, when the decision to replace had already been made? It basically stole a Democrat talking point.