Rummy's out: Is anyone surprised?

From CNN, although the news is everywhere by now:

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld stepped down Wednesday, one day after congressional elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican Party losses.

President George W. Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.

Asked whether his announcement signaled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqis, Bush said, "Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon." […]

Bush lavished praise on Rumsfeld, who has spent six stormy years at the Pentagon. He disclosed he met with Gates last Sunday, two days before elections in which Democrats took control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate.

Keith Olbermann handled the introductions this evening: "Secretary Rumsfeld--wheels of the bus. Wheels of the bus--Secretary Rumsfeld."

Those 7200 Virginia votes separating Webb and Allen will determine whether the Democrats have the Senate as well, meaning that those votes determine the kind of questioning that Gates will get at his confirmation hearings. (Note: Olbermann just reported that NBC has joined the AP in declaring the race for Webb. There's a week's worth of blogging to be done just on the benefits to the republic of replacing Arlen Specter as chair of the Senate Judiciary committee.)

Bush the Decider, of course, will go to his grave insisting that there is no connection between the unpopularity of the Iraq war, the evident failure of Rumsfeld's approach to war-planning and war-making, and the electoral ass-kicking Rove's Machine received yesterday. It's that he happened--just by chance--to choose today of all days to hand Rummy his walking papers. As Mike Allen of Time Magazine reported tonight on Olbermann, the GOP campaigns across the country are fuming that Bush waited until this morning to throw Rummy to the wolves--many are convinced that, had Bush accepted the inevitable and let Rummy go a week ago, it might have saved several GOP congressional seats.

Meanwhile, for those who like their schadenfreude applied with a fire hose, p3 presents these excerpts from Rumsfeld's Rules as a tribute to the man:

• Learn to say “I don't know.” If used when appropriate, it will be often.


• If you foul up, tell the president and correct it fast. Delay only compounds mistakes.


• In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead, a president must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership.


• Be precise. A lack of precision is dangerous when the margin of error is small.


• Preserve the president's options. He may need them.


• It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.


• Don't divide the world into "them" and "us." Avoid infatuation with or resentment of the press, the Congress, rivals, or opponents. Accept them as facts. They have their jobs and you have yours.


• Being vice president is difficult. Don't make it tougher.


• Don't automatically obey presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.


• The price of being close to the president is delivering bad news. You fail him if you don't tell him the truth. Others won't do it.


• You and the White House staff must be and be seen to be above suspicion. Set the right example.


• Don't think of yourself as indispensable or infallible. As Charles de Gaulle said, the cemeteries of the world are full of indispensable men.


• Be able to resign. It will improve your value to the president and do wonders for your performance.


• Your performance depends on your people. Select the best, train them, and back them. When errors occur, give sharper guidance. If errors persist or if the fit feels wrong, help them move on. The country cannot afford amateur hour in the White House.


• You will launch many projects but have time to finish only a few. So think, plan, develop, launch and tap good people to be responsible. Give them authority and hold them accountable. Trying to do too much yourself creates a bottleneck.


• Think ahead. Don't let day-to-day operations drive out planning.


• Plan backward as well as forward. Set objectives and trace back to see how to achieve them. You may find that no path can get you there. Plan forward to see where your steps will take you, which may not be clear or intuitive.


• A president needs multiple sources of information. Avoid excessively restricting the flow of paper, people, or ideas to the president, though you must watch his time. If you overcontrol, it will be your “regulator” that controls, not his. Only by opening the spigot fairly wide, risking that some of his time may be wasted, can his "regulator" take control.


• See that the president, the cabinet and the staff are informed. If cut out of the information flow, their decisions may be poor, not made, or not confidently or persuasively implemented.


• Don't allow people to be excluded from a meeting or denied an opportunity to express their views because their views differ from the president's views, the views of person who calls the meeting, or your views. The staff system must have integrity and discipline.


• When the president is faced with a decision, be sure he has the recommendations of all appropriate people, or that he realizes he does not have their views and is willing to accept the consequence. They will be out of sync, unhappy and less effective if they feel they are or are seen as having been "cut out."


• If a prospective presidential approach can't be explained clearly enough to be understood well, it probably hasn't been thought through well enough. If not well understood by the American people, it probably won't "sail" anyway. Send it back for further thought.


• Many people around the president have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.


• The secretary of defense is not a super general or admiral. His task is to exercise civilian control over the department for the commander in chief and the country.


• Normal management techniques may not work in the department. When pushing responsibility downward, be sure not to contribute to a weakening of the cohesion of the services; what cohesion exists has been painfully achieved over the decades.


• Establish good relations between the departments of Defense and State, the National Security Council, CIA and the Office of Management and Budget.

I suppose we could say "Rummy, we hardly knew ye"--except we did, and that's why we soured on you so long ago. If you'd have actually believed--or "remembered," for the sympathetically inclined--even half of those pearls of wisdom, your key would probably still fit your office door next month.