Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was busy Sunday morning and he didn’t catch Meet The Press. But thanks to his trusted iPod he just listened to the podcast of Sunday’s show last night. One of the featured guests was John Murtha (D-Penn).

Among the items that Murtha discussed with Tim Russert was that Donald Rumsfeld should be fired (or resign). This has been a refrain around DC of late. (Indeed the President answered questions about this subject yesterday in his press conference.) The cognocenti of DC are saying Rumsfeld needs to go. Rice needs to go. Rove needs to go. Gonzales needs to go. Pretty much it seems as though everyone in DC thinks that the President should get rid of pretty much everyone in his cabinet.

Many people would like to see Vice President Cheney leave too. But that is just completely wishful thinking. Cheney is going no where. Hell, he might even stay on into the next Administration… Frankly, neither are Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, or Gonzales going anywhere. This sort of begs the question, should some of them go? Would the President be better served if they did go?

Well… Your Maximum Leader is of the opinion that Rove ought to go. He feels this way because Rove still has a small cloud hanging over him concerning the whole Valerie Plame thingie. (A cloud that your Maximum Leader doesn’t believe is going to do anything except blow over in a little more time.) Rove, if he leaves the White House and the President’s service would serve a few good ends. First, it would allow the President to get some fresh advice and blood in the West Wing. Second, it might allow Rove to lay the ground work for Republicans (preferably conservative Republicans… and hell, conservative Democrats are okay they are just few and far between) in future elections.

Your Maximum Leader will not join the chorus of conservatives, libertarians, and Republicans calling for Rumsfeld and Rice to go. Your Maximum Leader thought the time for Rumsfeld to go was around the time Abu Gharib was uncovered. At this stage your Maximum Leader believes that Rumsfeld leaving will not accomplish any good. By the time a new Secretary of Defense is confirmed and gets situated in the Pentagon another year or 18 months could be passed. During that time an essentially leaderless Pentagon would not serve our interests well.

Your Maximum Leader further believes that in the President’s mind sacking Rumsfeld would be tantamount to admitting that all of his war critics are right and he is wrong. Frankly, in the minds of many of the President’s opponents sacking Rumsfeld would in fact be viewed as an affirmation that they were right and the President wrong. In many ways, Rumsfeld departing would actually weaken the President politically. By giving the impression that he is changing course by dumping one of the chief architects of the one item that the President has staked his reputation upon would effectively end his presidency.

Your Maximum Leader thinks that at this point Donald Rumsfeld has got to stay on. This is not to say that the Pentagon couldn’ stand some new blood. They could. But the man at the top needs to be Don Rumsfeld. For the sake of his presidency, Bush must keep Rumsfeld.

Frankly, for many similar reasons Condoleeza Rice will stay as well.

The people who need to go, and could go, are Alberto Gonzales and John Snow. Gonzales has too much baggage from the first term. But it is low profile enough that his departure (just a few months really after confirmation) wouldn’t be too tragic from a policy perspective. Frankly, if a Supreme Court vacancy were to come available, Gonzales would be a likely pick. (Not one that your Maximum Leader would be trilled about, but one that the President would make anyway.)

John Snow is too low profile all around to make waves if he should leave Treasury. (Your Maximum Leader is willing to bet that a good number of you weren’t even sure who the hell John Snow was? Remember Bush’s first Treasury Secretary? Your Maximum Leader will give you a hint. It wasn’t Alexander Hamilton or Albert Gallatin, or Andrew Mellon…) Appointing a strong economic conservative one with a little charisma might go a long way. Your Maximum Leader knows that Jack Kemp isn’t a favourite of many in the Bush team (and frankly he seems to have generally fallen out of favour with many conservatives - for reasons passing understanding). But a few years of Jack Kemp (hawkish and fiscally conservative Kemp) would be a good and invigorating thing for the Bush Second Term.

Oh yeah… Your Maximum Leader would sack Michael Chertoff too. But that is just your Maximum Leader speaking…

Carry on.