Perhaps Rumsfeld Should Stay

One of the points that hasn't been made during the discussion over whether Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should resign is whether Bush would appoint a more qualified or competent person to replace him.

The same point should be considered during the discussions over the talk of impeaching George Bush. What would that accomplish? Make Dick Cheney President? Please. If there is one person who would do a worse job as President than Bush it is Cheney.

While people have an interest in holding government officials accountable, the Bush administration, whether through planning, arrogance, or stupidity, aren't very good about personnel issues and there is no guarantee that a replacement would be any better. One only has to look at the number of people who told the truth and left while the yes-men or true believers stayed around to continue their destructive impulses.

One such example was former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in who in The Price of Loyalty, wrote that efforts to collect evidence and construct smart policy are, with little warning, co-opted by the White House political team, or the Vice President, or whoever got to the President and said something, true or not."

And just look at who Bush picked to replace Andy Card as Chief of Staff - Josh Bolten, who helped oversee the transition of budget surpluses to massive budget deficits as White House Budget Director.

One could hope that getting Bolten out of the Budget Office might mean that a more competent person would step into the role, but that would involve Bush picking a more qualified person as opposed to a true believer.

So rather than pushing Bush to install good people in his government, perhaps the public should be more interested in using the power they have at the ballot box to put good people in government.