Bush reveals Rumsfeld resignation
US president George Bush faces a hostile House of Represenatives for the rest of his presidency
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Wednesday, 08, Nov 2006 09:32
Donald Rumsfeld is to be replaced as US secretary of defence by former CIA director Robert Gates, president George Bush has announced.
Speaking for the first time since yesterday's midterm elections which removed the Republicans' six-year stranglehold over the House of Representatives, the president said that after discussions between the two it had been agreed that now was the best time for Mr Rumsfeld to leave the Pentagon.
"Donald Rumsfeld is a patriot. He is a trusted adviser and a friend and I am deeply gratefully for his service to our country," President Bush said.
He acknowledged that the war in Iraq, which Mr Rumsfeld had helped mastermind, had played a decisive role in the result of the midterm elections, but insisted that "we cannot accept defeat" in Iraq.
The president strove to strike a positive note this evening as he addressed the American people.
Facing having to work with a hostile House of Representatives during the last two years of his presidency, he began his first public comments since the elections by asking: "Say, why all the long faces?"
President Bush congratulated the Democrat leadership for the "superb job of turning out their vote" they achieved and said that he was looking forward to working with the new leader of the House, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, to "find common ground".
"As the majority party in the House of Representatives they recognise that they now have greater responsibilities," he pledged.
"In my first act of bipartisan outreach since the new election, I shared with her the names of some Republican interior decorators who can help her pick out some new drapes in her new offices," he added.
He concluded by urging a new era of bipartisanship, saying: "I'm confident that we can overcome the temptation to divide this country between red and blue. The issues before us are bigger than that and we're bigger than that."