Rumsfeld Not Told of the Change in His Job Description

[Crossbow]

Dick Rumsfeld (USA Secretary of Defense), the head of the Iraq reconstruction program, was not informed of how the Iraq reconstruction program was going to be changed.

While I am not a fan of his, I have to admit that is a pretty rude thing to do. Make large changes in a very high-profile job, then not even inform the person in charge of the changes, and let that person find out about the changes via a news interview.

This looks like a case of the one hand being completely unaware of what the other hand is actually doing.

Iraq Shake-up Skipped Rumsfeld
Confidential Memo Was First Alert, Defense Secretary Says

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58726-2003Oct7.html

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that he was not told in advance about a reorganization of the Iraq reconstruction, which he heads. He said he still does not know the reason for the shake-up.

...

Pressed [when repeatly asked about the new plan], he said: "I said I don't know. Isn't that clear? You don't understand English? I was not there for the backgrounding."

...

The new group, headed by senior Rice aides at the National Security Council, gives the White House a stronger role in overseeing the reconstruction effort, which is under attack on Capitol Hill as poorly planned and unexpectedly expensive. Republican sources said the White House realizes that the consequences could be dire if the pace of the reconstruction does not improve markedly before the 2004 presidential election campaign begins.

...

[a_unique_person]

It is all about the backgrounding.

[BillyTK]

What the bloody hell is "backgrounding"? Did he miss the "foregrounding" too? Was he absencing on that one?

[fishbob]

Is somebody dropping Rummy a hint to start looking for another job? This is the way big corporations do it.

[a_unique_person]

They certainly are. Rummy is on the outer now.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/09/1065676094203.html



Irked Rumsfeld left out of White House loop
By Julian Borger
Washington
October 10, 2003

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has revealed the depth of the fissures within the Bush Administration with a bad-tempered interview in which he said he was not told about an overhaul of Iraq policy.

Mr Rumsfeld revealed on Tuesday that he was not consulted on the decision to create a new Iraq Stabilisation Group, headed by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, to oversee Iraq's troubled reconstruction. He said he learned of it when a memo arrived on Friday. He had not discussed it with President George Bush.

The restructuring is designed to centralise daily decisions in the White House under the control of Dr Rice and the State Department, after harsh criticism from political foes and allies alike of Mr Rumsfeld and the Pentagon's lack of planning for postwar Iraq.

The drama began when Dr Rice sent Mr Rumsfeld a one-page memo on Friday saying the National Security Council would exercise its authority to help oversee reconstruction. Administration officials said the note in effect ended a hands-off policy that had allowed Mr Rumsfeld's Pentagon managers to make the decisions.



Despite all the positive spin still coming out of the Dubya camp, it appears he isn't happy with how Iraq has turned out.

However, Rumsfeld didn't do it all on his own. Those who are aligned with him must also be looking behind their backs.

[Zep]

Good. The man has been a high-handed self-aggrandising menace.

[Cain]

Maureen Dowd's column today in the _Times_, "Condi vs. Rumsfeld":

You should read the whole article, the second part is excerpted here so as to avoid violating the Times' "intellectual property":


Condi used a trick she learned from Rummy: pre-emption. She outflanked the famous Washington infighter by talking about the new alignment to The New York Times before he had a chance to object.

It was the first time the chesty defense czar — who had tried to freeze out the softies at State, which the Pentagon sneeringly refers to as "the Department of Nice" — had been downgraded by the president and outmaneuvered by a colleague.

"And because he is a cantankerous egomaniac," one longtime Rummy watcher said, "he compounded his own problems by acknowledging it in public, further undermining his own stature."

President Bush clearly realizes that Mr. Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz have gotten him into a fine mess. He wants his trusted Mother Hen, as he calls Condi, the woman who probably spends as much time with him as Laura — weekends at Camp David, vacations at the ranch, workouts at the gym — to make it all better. This will be the first time Ms. Rice, a Soviet expert who has functioned mostly so far as First Chum, will have her reputation on the line.

Some Republicans worry that it's risky to move accountability for postwar Iraq closer to the Oval Office because then there's no one else to blame.

In a meeting with foreign reporters on Tuesday in Colorado Springs, Rummy made no effort to mask his displeasure, saying he had not been consulted, even though Condi said he had, and cattily referring to the "little committees" of the N.S.C. When a German broadcast reporter pressed the defense secretary, he hissed: "I said I don't know. Isn't that clear? You don't understand English?"

One of Rumsfeld's Rules is: "Avoid public spats. When a Department argues with other government agencies in the press, it reduces the President's options." Hmm.

Maybe Rummy hasn't brushed up lately on the Washington rulebook he wrote in the 1970's — after his stints as President Gerald Ford's chief of staff and secretary of defense. Otherwise, he might have recalled this Rumsfeld rule before he bullied the world and ripped up Iraq: "It is easier to get into something than to get out of it."

[Ladewig]

Well, as long as they are going to throw him out, they might as well get a two-for-one special and pin the CIA agent leak on him, too.