Timing is everything.

Let’s play the “What if” game.

• What if George Allen had not said “macaca”?
  
  
• What if Dick Chaney had not shot someone?
  
  
• What if George Bush withdrew one third of the forces from Iraq?
  
  
• What if the CIA pulled Osama bin Ladin out of a hole?
  
  
• What if the Troops left after the proclamation of “Mission Accomplished”?
  
  
• What if Donald Rumsfeld resigned one week earlier?
  
  

All the other what if don’t matter, it is the last one that really has to have you shaking your head. All along I said that for the Republican to retain control of the House or Senate one of the following would have to happen: Pull out troops from Iraq, pull bin Ladin out of the hole, or fire Rumsfeld, and the Republican retain the control they want for the next two years. Well, the troops are still in Iraq, and bin Ladin is still in a hole, but Rumsfeld is out, a week too late.

If Rummy wanted to fall on his sword, don’t you think he could have done it seven days earlier? Doing it after the votes are counted, votes that were glaringly obvious from several weeks out, did nothing but make our already bewildered President look even more out of touch than he already is. For these political beasts not to see the eight hundred pound gorilla jumping on the bed of the upcoming election is about a myopic as a teen in puppy love. Well, at least Donald poked his head out from beneath the covers finally, but really, couldn’t he do it seven days earlier? I guess the snooze alarm was too tempting to pass up.

What if he had awoke to the need to retire seven day prior?

• The House would still have gone to the Democrats.
  
  
• The Senate would have remained in the control of the Republicans.
  
  
• The Dems in Congress while subpoenaing everything and everybody in the next year would in the end be ineffective.
  
  
• The troops would be out of Iraq in two years, but now I fear the troops will have to stay the course because our President will feel threatened and have to prove he was right.
  
  

In short, the Dems are going to force Bush into a defensive position. Bush will not want to admit now that his plan and lack of planning was wrong. He is going to want to retain his pride, and for this President pride is everything. Had Rumsfeld left a week earlier, bush would have a split House/Senate and he could “Work it out”. But now, once the investigations start, Bush will retreat to an “is not” position and that will be that.

Donald, you’re a week too late.