Bush, Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice

ã Dr. Gary D. Lemmons,November 12, 2006

It may be a little presumptuous to say that the American voters “took President Bush to the woodshed” this past Tuesday.  That dubious honor was reserved for the Congressional Republicans, who, because of falling into the most deadly of traps lairing for politicians (that of becoming fat, complacent, and corrupt), were trounced by the electorate.  Bush, on the other hand, together with his political “architect,” Karl…Haldeman…(excuse me)…Rove, was sent to bed without his supper.

The election results were no where near official, the next morning, when the President was up, palavering with Nancy Pelosi, and moving to take an action that he should have done three years ago…replacing Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.

I have no idea why “Georgie” waited until one day after the election to dump “Rummy.”  The more I watch this President, the more I fail to grasp his logic.  It is very possible that, had he dismissed the Secretary of Defense two weeks ago, the Republicans would have retained control of the Senate and possibly even kept control of the House.  His arrogant assertion last week that Rumsfeld was a member of his administration for the long haul was obviously untrue.  If I were Dick Cheney, of whom the same thing was said in the same interview, I would be nervous.

Consider this scenario.

What if, say about February, Dick Cheney suffers health reversals and decides to resign?  Should that happen, who better for the President to nominate (under the 25^th Amendment) for Vice President than current Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice?

The Congress, albeit controlled by the Democrats, would be hard pressed to deny her the office.

That would place her in a strong position to claim the Republican presidential nomination for 2008.  Assuming Hillary Clinton emerges as the Democratic nominee, life could become extremely interesting.