1115.org

From a Rolling Stone roundtable:

Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware): I was in the Oval Office the other day, and the president asked me what I would do about resignations. I said, “Look, Mr. President, would I keep Rumsfeld? Absolutely not.” And I turned to Vice President Cheney, who was there, and I said, “Mr. Vice President, I wouldn’t keep you if it weren’t constitutionally required.” I turned back to the president and said, “Mr. President, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld are bright guys, really patriotic, but they’ve been dead wrong on every major piece of advice they’ve given you. That’s why I’d get rid of them, Mr. President — not just Abu Ghraib.” They said nothing. Just sat like big old bullfrogs on a log and looked at me.

Biden makes an excellent point that often goes unmade by all the big media talking heads: This really is the gang that couldn’t shoot straight. They’ve been on the exact wrong side about so many things that it is hard to keep track anymore. But even now, they aren’t known as an incompetent administration.

The only people to lose their jobs so far have been people who told the truth (Paul O’neill, Larry Lindsay, and George Tenent). Despite countless large-scale mistakes that have made this country less safe and more despised, no one has been fired for simply doing a bad job or just being wrong one too many times.

Biden was right, Rumsfeld and Cheney need to go. But I’m content letting them drag the President down to defeat. And if we’re very lucky, we’ll get a Secretary of State Biden in the next administration.