Saturday, December 10, 2005
Rumsfeld Puts to Rest Retirement Rumors
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld insisted Thursday that, despite rumors to the contrary, he has no plans to retire anytime soon.
"Those reports,” Rumsfeld told reporters on Capitol Hill, "have been flying around since about four months after I assumed my post in 2002.”
"I have no plans to retire.”
Rumsfeld was responding to a report in the New York Daily News that White House officials were quietly suggesting he would step down early next year.
Rumors have swirled in Washington for the past few weeks that Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) was on the short list of potential replacements.
The Defense Department told Reuters that Rumsfeld met with Lieberman Thursday morning at the Pentagon, but said it was not an unusual meeting.
"[Secretary Rumsfeld] has breakfast with members of Congress all the time,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
"Senator Lieberman just returned from Iraq, and he had some interesting observations. And he’s been very outspoken about what he’s seen and the progress that he thinks is being made there.”
Lieberman - the 2000 Democratic vice-presidential candidate - wrote an op-ed column recently for the Wall Street Journal proclaiming: "The progress in Iraq is visible and practical ... None of these remarkable changes in Iraq would have happened if Coalition Forces lead by the U.S. had not overthrown Saddam Hussein.”
Leiberman's comments directly contradict vocal statements made by many well-known and lesser known members of his own Democratic Party, such as Senators Kennedy, Kerry and Biden, and Representatives Pelosi and Murtha.
"What a colossal mistake,” he continued, "it would be for America’s bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will, and in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.”
Lieberman has been heavily criticized by opponents of the war in Iraq. Left-wing blogs have suggested that his rumored appointment to the Secretary of Defense post would be good because it would give Democrats the chance to "get rid” of him.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld insisted Thursday that, despite rumors to the contrary, he has no plans to retire anytime soon.
"Those reports,” Rumsfeld told reporters on Capitol Hill, "have been flying around since about four months after I assumed my post in 2002.”
"I have no plans to retire.”
Rumsfeld was responding to a report in the New York Daily News that White House officials were quietly suggesting he would step down early next year.
Rumors have swirled in Washington for the past few weeks that Senator Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) was on the short list of potential replacements.
The Defense Department told Reuters that Rumsfeld met with Lieberman Thursday morning at the Pentagon, but said it was not an unusual meeting.
"[Secretary Rumsfeld] has breakfast with members of Congress all the time,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
"Senator Lieberman just returned from Iraq, and he had some interesting observations. And he’s been very outspoken about what he’s seen and the progress that he thinks is being made there.”
Lieberman - the 2000 Democratic vice-presidential candidate - wrote an op-ed column recently for the Wall Street Journal proclaiming: "The progress in Iraq is visible and practical ... None of these remarkable changes in Iraq would have happened if Coalition Forces lead by the U.S. had not overthrown Saddam Hussein.”
Leiberman's comments directly contradict vocal statements made by many well-known and lesser known members of his own Democratic Party, such as Senators Kennedy, Kerry and Biden, and Representatives Pelosi and Murtha.
"What a colossal mistake,” he continued, "it would be for America’s bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will, and in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.”
Lieberman has been heavily criticized by opponents of the war in Iraq. Left-wing blogs have suggested that his rumored appointment to the Secretary of Defense post would be good because it would give Democrats the chance to "get rid” of him.
