COULD ANYONE POSSIBLY HAVE ANY CONFIDENCE IN RUMSFELD?

A friend of mine was a member of the British Parliament in the run-up to the first Iraqi war and he invited me to hear Margaret Thatcher make her big pre-attack speech. I always loved the concept of a vote of no confidence built into the English system, although no one used it the day I was there. Now I may get a chance to see it used here in the U.S., and used on someone in whom no one in their right mind could possibly have any confidence, the wily, incompetent and apparently senile Donald Rumsfeld. It isn't only Keith Olbermann who has noticed that something is seriously wrong with Bush's Secretary of Defense.


Today's Washington Post reveals that "congressional Democrats are planning to push for a vote of no confidence" in Rumsfeld this month. "In Rumsfeld, Democrats believe they have found both a useful antagonist and a stand-in for President Bush and what they see as his blunders in Iraq. This week, Democrats interpreted a speech of his as equating critics of the war in Iraq to appeasers of Adolf Hitler." Since that seems to be equating something like 60% of American to Nazis, there's something worth looking into there. And beyond that, "accountability" has become an important word among Democrats lately. Even a dipshit like Rahm Emanuel managed to blurt out the right words today: "Secretary Rumsfeld's stewardship of this effort is a failure, and he has let down our armed forces." (He may be the worst possible DCCC chairman conceivable, confirmed yesterday by the effusive praise heaped on him by Bob Novak, but he's not 100% useless... just 90%.)


Barbara Boxer will offer a sense-of-the-Senate resolution next week calling for Bush to fire Rumsfeld. One of the stupidest and most reactionary rubber stamps in the House, a clown named Thaddeus McCotter pretty much says "Bring 'em on," claiming that this will help right wing extremists like himself rally moderates and swing voters, who have been abandoning the GOP in droves. McCotter is a corrupt kook from Michigan's 11th CD, just west of Detroit, who is in danger of losing his House seat to a progressive and popular Democrat, talk show host Tony Trupiano.