LAT: White House Stands By Beleaguered Rumsfeld

[NoPasaran]

WASHINGTON — Despite continued criticism of his handling of the war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld won strong backing Sunday from the White House and key Republicans in Congress.

Responding to demands last week by some conservatives for Rumsfeld's resignation, White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. said that President Bush fully supported his Defense secretary.

Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a spectacular job, and the president has great confidence in him," Card said on ABC's "This Week." "He's also transforming the military. And any time you do that, there are controversies."

The White House show of support came as new criticism arose over reports that Rumsfeld had relied upon an automated signature machine to sign letters to the families of soldiers killed in combat. More than 1,300 members of the military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-rumsfeld20dec20.story

[truthisfreedom]

1. heh. stay the course, bush. steady as she goes. plunge on ever deeper

into the darkness, chump.

[Disturbed]

2. Nice to see members of Congress defending....

a War Criminal.

Friday 17 December 2004

“Scott Horton, a New York lawyer and president of the International League for Human Rights, has spent months investigating the role Bush administration officials played in the torture scandal. He says there is mounting evidence - including the May 10 FBI e-mail - that strongly suggests that Rumsfeld and his top intelligence aides were directly responsible for the wholesale abandonment of legal and ethical norms as well as international treaty obligations. Now that Republican senators and neoconservative ideologues are publicly turning their backs on the defense secretary, perhaps even he may someday be held accountable for this disgraceful stain on the honor of the U.S. armed forces.”

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/121804X.shtml

[highnooner]

3. What does Rummy have on *

that the press annot get access to. It has to be really, really bad.

[0007]

5. Abu Ghraib comes to mind for starters, and then junior's personal life



[onecent]

7. Who is the guy on the left in this picture?

Thanks.

[0007]

9. Captain goodhair, everyone in Texas knows him as Governor!

[Fridays Child]

19. Hey, sweet Georgie, how 'bout we touch tongues?

[Dulcinea]

8. Rummy's one of the puppet masters.

Plus, Wolfowitz would replace Rumsfeld, & he'd be even worse.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Rummy is so gone.

This has all the makings of a bunch of sociopaths faced with the inescapable facts and looking for a way out that will allow them to maintain their self-image of infallibility.

[Sara Beverley]

6. The "red states" stand behing beleaguered Bush.

So what's new?

IBN!!!

[Tesla]

10. I didn't realize???

Just how Good, the "Good ol days", were!!!
Where's the Cold War, I liked that one.
No one died, we were well liked,man.

[NoPasaran]

12. Yeah, I miss being "The good guys" n/t

[Prisonerohio]

11. Bait and switch.

Rummy is now the scapegoat for all the bad from the administration.

[burn the bush]

13. they still need Rummy for the horrors ahead. They can't get rid of him

yet. Why if they were to throw him out now, then they will have to put someone else in his place who will have to do more war crimes. Then they would have to eventually get rid of him too. So they want Rummy to stay so he can get all of the blame.

[Swamp Rat]

14. PNACers are sticking together until the end.

[Tracer]

15. That Andy. He's such a "Card".

I guess that "spectacular" now replaces "superb" as an adjective to describe the worst screwups in the administration.

- "The federal drug safety agency is doing a spectacular job of proctecting the public, the White House chief of staff said yesterday"

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/bush/articles/2004/12/20/fda_doing_spectacular_job_white_house_chief_says/

[Massachusetts]

16. Insulated

These politicians (jokers), are to insulated from the REAL world to understand what the hell is going on inside and outside of OUR country.:mad: :mad: :mad:

[durablend]

17. Explains how 90% of DC voted for Kerry

Doesn't it?

The WH was probably the only red part of the whole "state"

[Fridays Child]

18. This slays me: "I have directed that in the future I sign each letter."

How did Rumsfeld do that? Did he send himself a memo?

It's fucking amazing how he so cynically worded that sentence in such a way as to remove from his own shoulders any of the onus generated by this revelation.

[Skittles]

20. I'm surprised they haven't hung a medal on him or promoted him

nt

[Disturbed]

21. Rumsfailed probably has ...

the original document signed by GW Bush allowing torture of any detainees.

[vixengrl]

22. Saw a clip of Bush standing up for him today:

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, I know how -- I know Secretary Rumsfeld's heart. I know how much he cares for the troops. He and his wife go out to Walter Reed in Bethesda all the time to provide comfort and solace. I have seen the anguish in his -- or heard the anguish in his voice and seen his eyes when we talk about the danger in Iraq, and the fact that youngsters are over there in harm's way. And he is -- he's a good, decent man. He's a caring fellow. Sometimes perhaps is demeanor is rough and gruff, but beneath that rough and gruff, no-nonsense demeanor is a good human being who cares deeply about the military, and deeply about the grief that war causes.

(Snip from www.whitehouse.gov ) And it struck me what he reminded me of--a young girl trying to defend her boyfried to her mom. "But gee, Mom, I know he seems all tough but he's really not like that at all. I see a different side of him..."

Somebody could remind Bush it's how people *act*, not what they say or what their intentions are, that really tells.