Just days after President Bush publicly affirmed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's job security through the end of his term, a family of publications catering to the military will publish an editorial calling for the defense secretary's removal.
The editorial, released to NBC News on Friday ahead of its Monday publication date, stated, "It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation's current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads."
The editorial will appear just one day before the midterm election, in which GOP candidates have been losing ground, according to recent polls.
"This is not about the midterm elections," continued the editorial, which will appear in the Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times, and Marine Corps Times on Monday. "Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth: Donald Rumsfeld must go."
The newspapers are published by the Military Times Media Group.
On Wednesday, Bush had said he wants Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to remain in his administration until the end of his presidency, extending a vote of confidence to two of the most-criticized members of his team.
In the same interview, Bush said he did not foresee a change in the immediate future in the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. He said that U.S. generals have assured him that "they've got what they can live with."
The entire editorial can be read here.
This is political devastation for both President Bush and the Republican Party. Bush has already affirmed that he plans to keep Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense for the rest of his term. But now we have one of the top military publications group calling for the head of Rumsfeld--this editorial is going to be read by American servicemen in all four branches of the military just a day before the midterm elections. In fact, there is a good chance that the editorial is going to be read by the servicemen over the weekend through MSNBC. And it is not just the servicemen that this editorial will reverberate through. When you've got a military publication calling for the resignation of Rumsfeld, just one day before the election, in which the central issue for the American voter for this election is Iraq, this is a serious discreditation to both the Bush administration's failed policy of Iraq, and the Republican Party's political arguments for their maintaining control of Congress.
The devastation just keeps piling on to President Bush and the Republican Party.
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