Rewarding Incompetence

The real surprise of Bush's second term has not been the cabinet members who left but those who stayed. Of course there is Condolezza Rice who never really figured out what the National Security Advisor was supposed to do so in a Standard "Peter Principal" move she has been elevated to Secretary of State. Most incomprehensible though has to be that Donald Rumsfeld is keeping his job. Bull Moose says it well:

Can someone please get Secretary Rumsfeld the number of Dr. Phil? This man is incapable of confronting his own errors and taking responsibility for his behavior. If he is going to remain as SECDEF for the foreseeable future, at least someone can get him professional help so that he can address some serious issues.

That pretty well sums it up, "incapable of confronting his own errors and taking responsibility for his behavior", indeed. The LA Times also chimes in today.

It's almost laughable in light of President Bush's ambitious Cabinet overhaul that Rumsfeld is among the few getting a second tour of duty. Rumsfeld should have resigned months ago, when he pledged to take full responsibility - a meaningless gesture, apparently - for the Abu Ghraib prison scandals. We've since learned that prisoner abuses encouraged by the administration's disdain for international law were more widespread, reaching from Guantanamo to Afghanistan.

What's more, the Defense secretary has shown a disastrous lack of judgment in the conduct of Iraqi operations. Rumsfeld once mocked Iraqi insurgents as "dead-enders," but a year and a half after entering Baghdad, the U.S. military cannot even secure the road between the city center and its airport. Just this week, Rumsfeld regretted not having been forewarned about the strength of the resistance, but he himself played a role in ushering out the Army's top general, Eric Shinseki, for his warning before the invasion that the U.S. would need at least 200,000 troops to occupy Iraq.

We are in the Iraqi mess today because of Rumsfeld's "disastrous lack of judgment in the conduct of Iraqi operations", yet he is rewarded with another tour of duty.

Then of course we have the Lord of Darkness, Vice President Dick Cheney, who's fingerprints are all over everything that is wrong with the Bush administration. Of course he had to stay since he's really the one calling the shots anyway.