[Wolfstar]

I don't really see how it shows that.

If the President fired Rummy, and if they were on bad terms, GWB would not have asked him to preside over this important meeting. The new Secretary of Defense has been confirmed, and has almost certainly had his official swearing in (the ceremonial swearing in comes later). If GWB wanted Rummy out of there post-haste, he'd be gone and the new SecDef would preside over the meeting this coming week.

Alternatively, the new SecDef could have asked Rummy to stay on for the meeting to help him out, but it wasn't Gates who asked. It was GWB himself.

A little logical reasoning goes a long way. :)

[snugs]

This is obviously why the official hand over is not until Monday week I suspect ceremonial swearing in will be probably be very early on Monday morning.

I read somewhere that Rumsfeld will officially be Secretary of Defense until first thing on Monday morning hence my reasoning for the above.

[ilovew]

It may show that GWB and Rummy aren't on bad terms but I don't think it necessarily shows that Rummy wasn't fired.

[snugs]

The Monday of course I am mentioning is Monday week.