Word: rumsfeld
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Leave it to George W. Bush and his fondness for old Republican pros to finally fill his vacancy at defense secretary ... with a former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld...
...Rumsfeld, 68, had the stature - he ran the Defense Department for Gerald Ford a quarter-century ago, and he's served four Republican administrations going back to Nixon. And he's got the pedigree. He dealt with low military morale in the wake of Vietnam, has held posts up and down the military and economic policy chains, and sees eye to eye with Bush on a missile defense. He even signed a letter in November criticizing Vice President Al Gore for agreeing in 1995 to Russia's sale of military equipment to Iran...
...been Ronald Reagan's Middle East envoy and Nixon's ambassador to NATO, and he studied deficit reduction under Bush's father. Heck, Cheney was Rumsfeld's deputy when Rumsfeld was Ford's chief of staff...
...much sway will Powell and Cheney have over this guy when it comes to military policy? "Little," Bush replied. "Colin Powell is a strong figure and Dick Cheney is no shrinking violet. But neither is Don Rumsfeld." Nor should confirmation be a problem - it's not as if he lacks for a resume...
...long after that, in 1968, Cheney left Wisconsin without finishing his doctoral dissertation. The outside world had a better offer--to become a Congressional Fellow for a Wisconsin Republican, William Steiger. In a pivotal moment in Cheney-lore, he caught the attention of Donald Rumsfeld, future chief of staff and Defense Secretary for Gerald Ford, when Rumsfeld asked Steiger to help him reorganize the Office of Economic Opportunity for Nixon. As Steiger's aide, Cheney wrote a precocious 12-page memo outlining how the place should be run. Rumsfeld, impressed, brought him into the agency and, after Nixon resigned...