WE SAY: Don't be shocked -- Rumsfeld's resignation was perfectly timed

he nation was rocked Wednesday -- not just with the results of the Nov. 7 elections that saw the Democrats seize political control of both the House and Senate, but also with the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as U.S. Secretary of Defense. While President George W. Bush spoke of the need for a "fresh perspective" in the Department of Defense and explained why he claimed prior to the election that Rumsfeld was in it for the long haul, much of the nation was caught off guard, astonished at the timing of the move. Now that the awe has worn off and the new nominee (former CIA director Robert Gates) has been revealed, it is clear to us that the surprise announcement was simply good (and common) political strategy.\nWe can't say for sure whether Rumsfeld's resignation will lead to success in a Defense Department that has been criticized for poorly conducting the war in Iraq and haphazardly creating policies against terrorism (although we do believe Rumsfeld's resignation was the correct course of action). But we can try to answer the question of why the Bush administration would make the decision to announce the resignation immediately following such an overwhelming Democratic victory in Congress. \nNov. 8 was the moment when it was the least crippling to the GOP to make the announcement. Bush gave an adequate explanation of why he did not reveal the resignation prior to the election (even when asked directly), saying he "didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign." This is quite understandable considering the number of tight races that preceded the Democrats' large victory. By announcing the resignation at that juncture, the GOP would have risked showing weakness to its constituents prior to a major political decision. But it also wouldn't have been in the GOP's best political interest to wait until a week after the elections. With the American people concerned with the recent Democratic "thumping" of the GOP in Congress and the media focusing on individual seat victors, the resignation of Rumsfeld has plenty of competition for the public's attention. Thus, the GOP has guaranteed that media coverage will be split between the resignation of the defense Secretary and election hangover. The focus will not be wholly on Rumsfeld and what it means for the future of the conflict in Iraq and elsewhere.\nThe nation now looks to Gates, who earned his master's degree in history from IU in 1966, to take over the position that has been left empty by the embattled Rumsfeld. On Nov. 8, Bush said Gates, an academic and former CIA director, is the man for the job, "win or lose." But whether things will change in American foreign policy depends not merely on the leadership of Gates, but on Bush's commitment to make a change in policy. Bush said himself, "Iraq is not working well enough, fast enough." How committed he is to remedying that problem remains to be seen.