President's Evasion Raises Truth IssuesRemarks on Rumsfeld Questioned
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 10, 2006; Page A04
Did the president of the United States make a rare admission on national television that he had told an untruth?....................
Six days before the election, Bush told three wire-service reporters in an interview that Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney were doing "fantastic" jobs.
"You see them staying with you until the end?" asked Terence Hunt of the Associated Press.
"I do," Bush replied.
"So you're expecting Rumsfeld, Secretary Rumsfeld, to stay on the rest of your time here?" asked Steve Holland of Reuters.
"Yes, I am," the president said.
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The president added that he had not made a definitive decision because he had not held his "last" conversation with Rumsfeld and had not yet spoken to Robert Gates, his nominee to take over the Pentagon.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/09/AR2006110901817.htmlRemoval of Rumsfeld Dates Back to Summer By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 10, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — President
Bush was moving by late summer toward removing Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary, people inside and outside the White House said Thursday. Weeks before Election Day, the essential question still open was when, not whether, to make the move.
Mr. Bush ultimately postponed action until after the election in part because of concern that to remove Mr. Rumsfeld earlier could be interpreted by critics as political opportunism or as ratifying their criticism of the White House war plan in the heart of the campaign, the White House insiders and outsiders said.
The White House has refused to divulge the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that went into Mr. Rumsfeld’s announced resignation on Wednesday. Those who were interviewed would speak only on condition of anonymity, but included officials at the White House and those in a close circle of outside advisers. They said the administration had been engaged in painful off-again-on-again discussions about Mr. Rumsfeld’s ouster for months, even as Mr. Bush said repeatedly that Mr. Rumsfeld was his man for Iraq.
The delay in Mr. Rumsfeld’s departure was painful for some Republicans, who have argued that his continued presence in the administration was politically counterproductive. Some complained Thursday that the resignation had come too late to be any help during an election in which Mr. Rumsfeld became a whipping boy for Democratic, and eventually some Republican, candidates.
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