[SJackson]

Not at all. It cleared the decks of the imminent hearings Rumsfeld would have had to suffer through. Not good for him, not good for Bush, not good for the military...This takes the anti-Rumsfeld thing away from the Dims. They'll have some hearings but they can't go into the kind of excruciating stuff they were planning....Shrewd move. Bush cut his losses here. And Cheney's influence is unchanged. Those two are very very close....Far more likely we'll see Condi shoved out the door. Personally, that would be my preference.

I think we need to see if GWB is going to adopt the policy recomendations of the Baker bipartisan "policy group", said to be a withdrawl with negotiations with Iraq and Iran to draw them in for stability purposes. If that's the policy, and Gates serves on the group with luminaries such as Sandra O'Connor, Vernon Jordan and Leon Panetta, not to mention Baker, the Dems might be pleased with Gates. Yes, they'll bash Rummy and Bush in the hearings, while taking credit for the change in policy, which they'll attribute to their "suggestions" during the campaign. Rice, she won't go, in fact he star will likely rise. We'll have a better idea in a week or so, once the proposals are made public.

[George W. Bush]

I think we need to see if GWB is going to adopt the policy recomendations of the Baker bipartisan "policy group", said to be a withdrawl with negotiations with Iraq and Iran to draw them in for stability purposes.

I think Baker recommends semi-partition, three autonomous regions and some agreement with Turkey and Iran to leave them alone. And we largely withdraw to our bases in Iraq as guarantors of the peace. I don't see any complete Iraqus interruptus on the horizon.

[Sabramerican]

Wall Street Journal shares our view.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1735784/posts