Bush's Press Conference

Bush and Rumsfeld have both agreed that the time is right for new leadership at the Pentagon.

It's a pity that they didn't agree on this before the election at which Bush just admitted they got a "thumping", as perhaps the "thumping" wouldn't have been as hard.

Of course, Bush was lying his ass off. He had already admitted lying to reporters last week when he said that he intended for Rumsfeld to serve until the end of the administration. He now says that he hadn't yet met Rumsfeld's successor which is why he answered the way he did, to move the journalists on to "the next question".

However, the very fact that he answered by saying that he wanted Rumsfeld to serve "until the end of his administration" was an obvious lie if he was already thinking about a successor.

But, of course, he's even lying when he describes the circumstances that prove he wasn't lying. (It's complicated isn't it?)

The truth is, as he admitted at today's Press Conference, that he didn't expect to lose. So, had he achieved his expected victory, we can only assume that Rumsfeld was intended to stay in his present position.

So the firing of Rumsfeld is the nearest we can expect him to come to admitting to the new political reality.

Although he was quick to remind us that the election was a close one, implying that the Democrats do not have a mandate from the American electorate. This is rich coming from the man who was elected - if, indeed, he was ever elected at all - on the thinnest of margins and who governed as if the Democrats did not exist.

Apparently, he now wants the Dems and the Republicans to work together and he is prepared to do so. The very fact that he has adopted this language tells us how near to meltdown his Presidency is. Suddenly we have said goodbye to "The Decider" and hello to "The Negotiator".

He now looks forward to working with the very Democrats who's victory - according to his own pre-election bile - would signify America's loss.

The truth is that the resignation of Rumsfeld is Bush's greatest ever admission that the war in Iraq, in it's current form, is not working.

And a rather tetchy Bush is feeling his way around this new reality playing that old song that he's "a uniter not a divider".

The last six years have taught us all a different reality. It will take more than that bizarre press conference to convince any of us that he's serious.

Although, with the Senate now also looking like it's also going to fall to the Democrats, he can learn a new tune or face history as a lame duck.

A new political reality has descended on the US. It's going to get more interesting from here on in.

Rummy's about to make his speech so I'm off to watch it. I'll have more to say on his resignation in the morning.

tag: United, States, Bush, mid-term, elections, November, Rumsfeld, resignation,