Resignation Theater

Tom Keane says Don Rumsfeld should resign. And, of course, Rumsfeld has been a poor Secretary of Defense. Overwhelmingly, however, this poorness has tended to manifest itself in Rumsfeld advocating horribly misguided policies that the President of the United States also advocates. Now, there's a question as to what extent Rumsfeld is actually influencing Bush to adopt the same horribly misguided policies as Rumsfeld, or to what extent Rumsfeld and Bush just happen to be in agreement on all this stuff. Probably the question isn't answerable. The issue, however, is Bush, not Rumsfeld. It's not as if Rumsfeld just did some one dumb thing two weeks ago and Bush has the chance to wash his hands of it. The problem with Rumsfeld just is the problem with the Bush administration's national security policy. Pretending that there's some "Rumsfeld issue" that could be resolved with a resignation at which point everything will be back on track is absurd.