Reuters is reporting that Donald Rumsfeld submitted his resignation as defense secretary one day before voters went to the polls on Nov. 7, 2006, and handed control of Congress to the Democrats in an election that many saw as a rebuke of President Bush's war policies.
A notation indicates that Bush saw the letter on Election Day. In the four-paragraph note, Rumsfeld thanks Bush for his leadership but doesn't mention the ongoing conflict in -- and over -- Iraq. He says his second term as defense chief was "the highest honor of my long life."
Bush announced Rumsfeld's departure after the polls closed. At a press conference that day, Bush insisted that he hadn't know Rumsfeld would be leaving the administration when he spoke with reporters just days before the election.
Asked about the timing of that statement, Bush said a group of reporters: asked me the question one week before the campaign, and basically it was, are you going to do something about Rumsfeld and the vice president? And my answer was, they're going to stay on. And the reason why is I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign. And so the only way to answer that question and to get you on to another question was to give you that answer.
The truth of the matter is, as well -- I mean, that's one reason I gave the answer, but the other reason why is I hadn't had a chance to visit with Bob Gates yet, and I hadn't had my final conversation with Don Rumsfeld yet at that point
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