JOB SAFETY….Will George Bush replace Treasury Secretary John Snow? As many people have pointed out, the biggest problem is finding someone of any stature willing to take the job. After all, why give up a multimillion dollar CEO job in order to be humiliated for a couple of years by a lame duck doofus who’s just a little too obviously tickled by the fact that he gets to boss around someone with a PhD?
That’s not a problem for the job of Defense Secretary, but Josh Marshall points out a good reason that Bush might want to avoid changes there too:
With Rumsfeld, or any other cabinet secretary, there’s a related problem ? the importance of which has, I think, not been fully appreciated or aired. If Rumsfeld goes, you need to nominate someone else and get them through a senate confirmation. That means an open airing of the disaster of this administration’s national security policy. Every particular; all about Iraq. Think how much they don’t want that …
In the end, I think the real reason Bush doesn’t plan to replace Rumsfeld is his usual chip-on-a-shoulder stubbornness ? plus the fact that Cheney likes Rumsfeld. But yeah, confirmation hearings would be a bitch too, wouldn’t they? After all, the main question would be, “What are you going to do differently from Rumsfeld?” and that would be a very awkward question indeed. Democrats have been tying themselves in knots trying to answer that for the past couple of years, and I doubt that a Republican could do any better.
So for now, Rumsfeld stays because Bush isn’t the kind of man who can put up with a bit of short-term embarrassment. And our military will continue to pay the price.
