Kristol: Bush No Longer Believes Rumsfeld’s ‘Happy Talk,’ But Is ‘Unwilling to Second-Guess’ Him
Kristol: Bush No Longer Believes Rumsfeld’s ‘Happy Talk,’ But Is ‘Unwilling to Second-Guess’ Him
Last night, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol appeared on the Charlie Rose show and reported from inside knowledge that President Bush is “not believing the happy talk any more that he was getting from Rumsfeld.†But, Kristol claimed, Bush will not replace the Secretary of Defense because he’s “unwilling to second-guess Rumsfeld’s fundamental understanding of the use of the military†in Iraq. Watch it:
As Sen. Hillary Clinton pointed out at a recent hearing, Rumsfeld’s “fundamental understanding†of Iraq has been consistently wrong every step of the way. At one point, Rumsfeld even acknowledged surprise at the hostility the troops faced in Iraq. Bush’s unwillingness to question Rumsfeld or challenge his decisions has prevented the strategy in Iraq from advancing past “stay the course.â€
Full transcript:
KRISTOL: I wish the president — I think the president I’m told by someone who spoke to him recently, the president is not believing the happy talk any more that he was getting from Rumsfeld and I’m afraid from some of the generals. that he’s alarmed about the situation in iraq. He’s unwilling I think to second-guess Rumfeld’s fundamental understanding of the use of the military there and I think that’s a big problem. But perhaps he will make some tactical changes. Perhaps they’ll work. Perhaps — we do still do have a unity government there that has real support.
And so I don’t think it’s by any means — I’m less fatalistic than Richard [Holbrooke]. But I don’t disagree about his fundamental concern about the situation, his alarm about the situation. I’m certainly not at the point of saying that we’d be better off getting out and I don’t think the president is. And I think, you know, let’s see where we are three, six months from now. We can continue.
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Go Team Terror!
August 15th, 2006 at 4:38 pmYea! We get 2 Dummies for the price of 1!
Woo hoo!!!!
August 15th, 2006 at 4:40 pmAh, he wants to wait a half a Friedman to a Friedman and figure out where we are.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:41 pmThat would be a pretty good trick for somebody with no military history.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:41 pmWhy doesn’t Bill Kristol run as an Independent with Joe Liberman for President. I guess this elected official stuff is just too cumbersome.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:41 pmBecause as a neocon pundit, Kristol can say whatever he wants and not be held accountable. But, if he was an elected official, he could be held acount…………oh, nevermind.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:44 pmCould this be why Bush has been making suprise trips to the Mideast lately? Maybe a suprise to Rummy so he couldn’t prepare a nice wartime progress parade for Chimpy? Chances are this is just some of that ol Kristol Spinny Magick, but maybe… just maybe…
Curiouser and curiouser. Curse me for having hope.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:46 pmI want Rumsfields job. If I was as consistently awful at predicted what is going to happen I would have been fired years ago. It seems that no matter how wrong he gets it, hey, it doesn’t matter. It’s only poor people, and those of a darker skin, who are dying so who cares. Cigars and double Cognacs for everyone!
August 15th, 2006 at 4:47 pmKristol is a “Buttriloquist”.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:48 pmBill Kristol, apply directly to the foreskin. Bill Kristol, apply directly to the foreskin. Bill Kristoil, apply directly to the foreskin.
-GSD
August 15th, 2006 at 4:51 pmBush will not replace the Secretary of Defense because he’s “unwilling to second-guess Rumsfeld’s fundamental understanding of the use of the military†in Iraq
Let us review, Shall we:
Donald Rumsfeld was a reserve Air Force officer during Korean War
Rumsfeld was an undersecretary of Defense when McNamara was Sec. of Def. during Nixon administration. As an undersecretary, he was involved in planning, monitoring and developing the strategy for the Vietnam War. WE ALL KNOW HOW VIETNAM TURNED OUT.
Now, he is the head-honcho of the Iraq war, and we all know what a mess that is.
Could it be that Rumsfeld’s fundemental understanding comes from the two idiots called Director of Lesson’s Learned and Director of Fact Checking (see last month’s post on TP re White House salaries).
It seems Herr Feld MArshal Rumsfeld has neither learned any lessons from Vietnam and Iraq and he definitely has his facts wrong because there were no open arms greeting us and rose petals thrown at the feet of our troops when they walked into Bagdad; only IEDs.
Therefore, only an idiot would keep a moron like Rumsfeld in charge of DOD. But wait, GW is the village idiot from Crawford isn’t he?
August 15th, 2006 at 4:52 pmI hope this thread does not fill up with posts over another manipulative kristol comment…
August 15th, 2006 at 4:52 pmRumsfeld:
August 15th, 2006 at 4:53 pmHave I been talking “happy talk”? Perhaps, but no one knows if I am really happy or really just happy talking or if I know what I know and what I do not know. Will I change? Golly gee, of course I’ll change. I’ll change my suit. I’ll change my shirt. I’ll change my underwear. Will I change my tactics? Jeepers, I won’t do that. You never know when what you think you know or what you don’t know might change into what you do know and tactics that might or will work sometime in the future when you don’t know the future. And second-guessing is just a foolhardy response to first guessing that was a product of not knowing everything you needed to know to not guess but to actually know what response to have in order to avoid creating an atmosphere of uncertainty. I am very clearly in favor of that and will stay the course as long as necessary to insure that the American people know where I stand and what needs to be done productively.
Kristol is sooooo full of it.
Dumbsfeld is doing what Bush and Cheney want him to do with Iraq. If he wasn’t doing what Bush wanted, he would have been canned long ago
Kristol is just spouting bullsh*t
August 15th, 2006 at 4:56 pmOne of the chief Neo-Conservative PNAC cowards who love war but know absolutely nothing about it first hand. He is a chickenshit chickenhawk zionist pig…just like all the rest of the bastards who want to cause WWIII.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:57 pmBill was only half right when he said:
“But surely Don Rumsfeld is not the defense secretary Bush should want to have for the remainder of his second term.”
Don wasn’t the secdef to have in the first term either.
August 15th, 2006 at 4:59 pmBill Kristol sez:
And I think, you know, let’s see where we are three, six months from now. We can continue.
OK….Kristol wants just one more Friedman…trouble is…he and his ilk said that six Friedmans ago.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:00 pm[...] KRISTOL: I wish the president — I think the president I’m told by someone who spoke to him recently, the president is not believing the happy talk any more that he was getting from Rumsfeld and I’m afraid from some of the generals. that he’s alarmed about the situation in iraq. He’s unwilling I think to second-guess Rumfeld’s fundamental understanding of the use of the military there and I think that’s a big problem. But perhaps he will make some tactical changes. Perhaps they’ll work. Perhaps — we do still do have a unity government there that has real support. [...]
August 15th, 2006 at 5:03 pmDoes Bill Kristol know that he is emboldening our enemies by questioning the judgment of our faultless president? I think he should be executed.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:07 pmBush will not replace the Secretary of Defense because he’s “unwilling to second-guess Rumsfeld’s fundamental understanding of the use of the military†in Iraq.
He doesn’t have to second guess shit… only accept the fact that every decision thus far has been a bad one.
After all – how good could a persons understanding actually be if everything they do makes the situation exponentially worse?
August 15th, 2006 at 5:09 pmRumsfeld was an undersecretary of Defense when McNamara was Sec. of Def. during Nixon administration.
Watch “Fog of War”, the Errol Morris doc on McNamara if you haven’t. It is eerie how it could be about Iraq and not Vietnam. Repeating history…
August 15th, 2006 at 5:14 pm(AP) Masked Palestinian gunmen ambushed a car carrying a Fox News crew in Gaza City on Monday and kidnapped two of the journalists inside, according to witnesses and Fox.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:17 pmMore
I want Rumsfields job. If I was as consistently awful at predicted what is going to happen I would have been fired years ago.
If Rummy and Bush were Japanese, they would have committed hari kari long ago.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:17 pmKristol is the same asshat who stated right after the war began that it was bad pop psychology that the Sunnis and Shites hated each other, going on to say there was no evidence of that. And he makes that statement with such absolute arrogant conviction.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:18 pmDoes Bill Kristol know that he is emboldening our enemies by questioning the judgment of our faultless president? I think he should be executed.
Kristol is chomping at the bit to “punish” Iran for their centrifuges, and he’s pissed that Bush hasn’t carpetbombed them yet. He’d prefer we nuked Iran, I’m sure, but he’ll settle for regular bombs if he has to.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:20 pmIt wouldn’t do anyone else any good, but I would take the assault charge to punch that smirk off of Kristol’s face.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:20 pmAfter all – how good could a persons understanding actually be if everything they do makes the situation exponentially worse?
Comment by G.W.SuperChrist
That first action that started it all was when Bush decided to go invade Iraq and telling us all lies to get congress to ok the invasion. Rummy has been following orders from Cheney and Bush since. Everything, from torturing prisoners onward has made the situation we have today.
Getting rid of Rummy will fix nothing as long as the rest are in office.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:20 pmFirst of all Bill Kristol is an idiot. Just like Cheney, I don’t believe anything he says. Second, we all know that Cheney and Rummy are running the White House, Rove is on nasty campaign patrol, and Bush is the Chief Idiot! I think even the most foolish people would think maybe we need a change at the top. Let’s have Rummy retire and go gently into the good night. Let him go to an assisted living home for old stupid people!
August 15th, 2006 at 5:21 pm“we still have a unity government there that has real support…”
From who?
August 15th, 2006 at 5:21 pmBush will not replace Rumsfeld, because Dubya is just the front man puppet leader, so VP Cheney is actually the real president, and Rummy is Dick’s good pal/comrade!
August 15th, 2006 at 5:25 pmIf Rummy and Bush were Japanese, they would have committed hari kari long ago.
Comment by ann
That would only be if they had any honor.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:28 pmmake no mistake, neither one has any honor at all.
Kristol looks very unhappy in that pic today > must be because Israel lost its war on Hezbollah and Iraq is so bad that not even Neocons like himself can put lipstick on that pig > lol.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:32 pm#11 pissed off: McNamara was DefSec under JFK & LBJ-leaving to head the world bank in ‘68. Melvin Laird was DefSec under Nixon.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:41 pmKristol: And I think, you know, let’s see where we are three, six months from now. We can continue.
Donald Rumsfeld, 3/7/03:. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.
Is “six months” Kristol-time the same as six months Rummy-time?
August 15th, 2006 at 5:42 pm#27 Jeff ; forget assault, I’d be willing to frag that motherf*cker.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:46 pmWhat an appropriate reference, In South Pacific Bloody Mary sings “Happy Talk”, and today Bloody Rummy in South Iraq sings it.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:46 pmRumsfeld served in Congress from the North Suburbs of Chicago from 1963 – 1969.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:52 pmBuckaroo Banzai has the greatest non-sequitur line about a watermelon of any movie ever.
August 15th, 2006 at 5:52 pmThat’s completely off topic, so I hate Rumsfeld!
Jeezus, would someone please let me know which happy pills that douchebag is taking, ‘cuz obviously his seem to work all the time!
August 15th, 2006 at 6:05 pmGSD, That is one of your Best! That’s right up there with Leave no Emirates behind. Party on man!
August 15th, 2006 at 6:16 pmA leader is supposed to be unwilling to critically question their followers? ONLY if you are a puppet leader… oops… did I say that?
August 15th, 2006 at 6:25 pmThrow Rummy from the train.
-GSD
August 15th, 2006 at 6:40 pmThanks Flyman.
-GSD
August 15th, 2006 at 6:42 pm“I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.” -George Bush, AntiChrist (July 9, 2004)
August 15th, 2006 at 7:04 pmI think the president I’m told by someone who spoke to him recently,
That’s Kristol-code for “I had lunch with VP Cheney and this is what he told me.”
August 15th, 2006 at 7:21 pmMr.Kristol is just GOSSIPING!! Sharing his second-hand tidbits, as if GWB had said it too him himself. How long has this been going on? Is Kristol no longer ‘in with the in crowd’? Pity…., Party of one, your table is ready. And it was GWB who wanted to be told only the ‘happy stories’, he doesn’t like to hear bad news, takes all of the sparkle off being the ‘man’. And you know how pissy he can get. No wonder Rummy’s job is so secure, he gives GWB what he wants. Someone else might tell him the truth, and that would never do. Oh my, no.
August 15th, 2006 at 7:23 pmMy, my, my Senator Clinton. Ooops. My bad.
August 15th, 2006 at 7:28 pmIf you caught the show, Kristol looked like he was frightened that someone would throw a glass of water on him and he’d melt on the floor. What a tool.
August 15th, 2006 at 7:35 pmSo when Kristol says that “we” can keep going for another 3-6 months, is that $24,000,000,000 to $48,000,000,000 coming out of his paycheck and the paychecks of all the other warmongers out there? Or are they misappropriating my funds as well?
August 15th, 2006 at 7:50 pmRummy’s fundamental understanding of the use of the military in Iraq is as complete as my understanding of the unified field theorem, and I am no Einstein.
August 15th, 2006 at 8:52 pm#14 Wayne – you present a good point… Kristol is just making these statements to bring Bush’s approval ratings out of the gutter. Rumsfeld can take the heat because he and Cheney own Bush and Bush will do whatever they tell him to do. If you watch how Bush behaves in Washington, DC and compare that to the frat boy antics during the 8 summit, it becomes evident that “W” doesn’t know how to act when Alzheimer Rummy and traitor Cheney are around to control him. Kristol’s statement is all “huff and puff”.
Can’t trust the Repubfascists to speak the truth.
August 15th, 2006 at 8:54 pmCoffins, come on now. The economy is in great shape. The nation is working. The president’s approval rating is rising. We have confidence in his ability to combat terrorism. Hey–even CNN said it today!
Damn, I feel good. I really do. Al Bundy.
August 15th, 2006 at 9:06 pmThe only reason Bush will never let Rumsfeld go is because it would be an admission of failure… something his ego will NEVER allow him to do.
August 15th, 2006 at 11:05 pmHillary Clinton never met a camera she didn’t LOVE. (Unfortunately, the poor woman has run into TOO many cameras that didn’t love her back…) She couldn’t wait to preen for the audience of “useful idiots” when she “confronted” Don Rumsfeld. Last Wednesday, Hillary was heard to give a BIG sigh of relief that her anti-war challenger couldn’t self-fund a campaign the way Neddie could….
August 16th, 2006 at 12:28 amLet’s see if I get this right, I’m not going to admit that Bill Kristol is a turd even though he is one.
Am I close on this one?
August 16th, 2006 at 3:15 amWhy would anyone care what this guy says. He has been wrong on everything. He is no expert.
August 16th, 2006 at 1:54 pm