[FreeReign]

The timing of the announcement was BAD and I'll never change my thought on this.

If he quit before the election the timing would have been considered "bad".

The media has been criticising Rummey weekly for years. So I guess if Rummey quit any time over the last few years, the timing would have been "bad", right?

[PerConPat]

The media has been criticising Rummey weekly for years.

I know that the circumstances are not identical; but I can't help visualizing Don Rumsfeld as the current version of Admiral Kimmel etc. after Peal Harbor. Somebody has to absorb the abuse attendant with being the first to have to realistically deal with a grave situation after decades of national denial. I will be eternally grateful to President Bush, Rumsfeld etc. for having the courage to act. In time, and I feel Rumsfeld knows this, the nature of his departure will be lost in the realization that he was the first one out there on the windy corner.