November 10, 2006
Removal of Rumsfeld in the Works for Months
By JIM RUTENBERG

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — President Bush was moving by late summer toward removing Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary, people inside and outside the White House said Thursday. Weeks before Election Day, the essential question still open was when, not if, to make the move.

Mr. Bush ultimately postponed action until after the election in part because of concern that to remove Mr. Rumsfeld earlier could be interpreted by critics as political opportunism or as ratifying their criticism of the White House war plan in the heart of the campaign, those people said.

The White House has refused to divulge the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that went into Mr. Rumsfeld’s announced resignation on Wednesday. Those who were interviewed would speak only on condition of anonymity, but included officials at the White House and those in a close circle of outside advisers. They said the administration had been engaged in painful discussions about Mr. Rumsfeld’s ouster for months, even as Mr. Bush said repeatedly that Mr. Rumsfeld was his man for Iraq.

The delay in Mr. Rumsfeld’s departure was painful for some Republicans, who have argued that his continued presence in the administration was politically counterproductive. Some complained Thursday that the resignation came too late to be any help during an election in which Mr. Rumsfeld became a whipping boy for Democratic, and eventually some Republican, candidates.

The people who agreed to speak about White House thinking said that Mr. Bush resisted earlier entreaties by aides who urged that Mr. Rumsfeld be removed — in part because of a deep sense of loyalty to the defense secretary, not to mention Vice President Dick Cheney’s own longstanding ties to Mr. Rumsfeld. They said Mr. Bush was also influenced by his deep appreciation for Mr. Rumsfeld’s work in overseeing two wars and transforming the military, and, in an unintended fashion, by the loud calls last spring from former generals for Mr. Rumsfeld’s ouster, which they said had caused the president to dig in to support the defense secretary.

In addition, officials said, Mr. Bush did not have an immediate idea for a successor.

The man Mr. Bush chose, Robert M. Gates, ultimately came from the world of Mr. Bush’s father, having served in his administration as director of central intelligence during the Persian Gulf war of 1991. Mr. Gates is also close to James A. Baker III, the elder Mr. Bush’s longtime political consigliere, and is a member of Mr. Baker’s Iraq Study Group.

But, officials said, the decision to replace Mr. Rumsfeld with Mr. Gates was ultimately made by the president, with advice and consultation from inside the White House, among a group of close advisers. The group — including the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, and the White House counselor, Dan Bartlett — was led by Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff, who came in last spring wanting to make dramatic signals that Mr. Bush was ready to make major changes to save an unpopular presidency.

Mr. Bolten took over just after the retired generals stepped forward to call for Mr. Rumsfeld’s dismissal, a dramatic break with military tradition. A senior official, who would speak only on condition of anonymity, said the generals had in effect ensured Mr. Rumsfeld’s job security, because the White House was unwilling to make any move that could be interpreted as the civilian leadership buckling under pressure from the military establishment. Still, “Without question it’s been in the works for a long time,” said Fred Malek, a Washington financier with longtime ties to Mr. Bush and his father.

“I don’t think he initiated it,” Mr. Malek said of Mr. Rumsfeld. But, he said, “I don’t think he resisted it,” adding that at 74 and after six years at the helm during two wars, Mr. Rumsfeld was ready to step aside.

For months, if not years, the walls had seemed to be closing in on Mr. Rumsfeld, who was a polarizing figure within the White House itself..

Some political strategists close to Mr. Bush regularly complained that Mr. Rumsfeld had become a liability. Tension between him and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spilled into view in the spring, when they publicly argued about her statement that there had been “thousands” of tactical mistakes in Iraq.

Ms. Rice is among Mr. Bush’s closest advisers, but an aide refused to discuss her private conversations with the president.

The former White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., has essentially confirmed an account in “State of Denial” by the journalist Bob Woodward that he raised the possible ouster of Mr. Rumsfeld twice — once in 2004, once earlier this year — but only as part of broader questions about staffing.

But Mr. Bush rejected Mr. Card’s advice, and by the time Mr. Bolten came in, the question of Mr. Rumsfeld’s dismissal was off the table because of the generals’ revolt, said the administration officials and outside advisers. The White House spokesman Tony Snow said that Mr. Bolten had not included Mr. Rumsfeld on a list of possible changes.

Among those aides brought in to meet with the president in the late spring — as part of a broader effort under Mr. Bolten to expose Mr. Bush to more outside views — was Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, one of Mr. Rumsfeld’s louder critics. A summer of heavy violence in Iraq increased pressure on Mr. Rumsfeld from within and outside of the White House. An associate of Mr. Bolten’s said that in early October that he had indicated deep concern about Mr. Rumsfeld’s tenure.

A senior administration official said that while the idea of Mr. Rumsfeld’s removal had periodically come up over the years and been shot down by Mr. Bush, “Obviously, the last month or two he was more receptive.”

The official said Mr. Bush gave his team the go ahead to start planning for a switch and explore the options. “He made it very clear to us two things: one, he did not want there to be any perception he was making a political decision because of the signals it sends; the second was, he wasn’t going to be comfortable with a decision or a make a move unless he was comfortable with the person.” the official said.

Although Mr. Gates serves on the study panel Mr. Baker heads, administration officials said Mr. Baker was not involved in his selection, and they took issue with suggestions that somehow Mr. Bush’s father’s old team was riding to the rescue. A senior administration aide said Mr. Baker found out about the choice minutes before it was announced.

This official said Mr. Gates’s selection came during a round of meetings in the last two months, as discussions between Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld evolved to the point where Mr. Rumsfeld had offered his resignation and Mr. Bush had finally accepted it.

On Thursday there were recriminations from some Republicans — among them Newt Gingrich — that Mr. Rumsfeld’s ouster came too late, and Republicans paid a price for it.

But officials said Mr. Bush had always planned to delay action until after the election — and to announce his decision immediately afterward, whether or not Republicans or Democrats won, to avoid the appearance he was acting in response to a drumbeat from a new Congress.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.