Emperor Nixes Lord Vader

Looks like the evil emperor wannabe has bowed to the will of the populace and sent Lord Vader to the space pasture.

Question: Why did they wait so long? They could have changed the outcome of the election had they done this last week.

From the Trib:

WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned today, just hours after the Republican party suffered a resounding defeat in nationwide mid-term elections, a vote that became a referendum on President Bush's strategy for the war in Iraq and on Rumsfeld's own stormy stewardship of the Pentagon.

President Bush announced Rumsfeld's departure during a news conference and said he had nominated former CIA Director Robert Gates as his next secretary of defense. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon declined to comment on the decision.

While Bush explained his decision as a need to put "fresh eyes" on his Iraq policy, it came after voters Tuesday turned control of the House of Representatives to Democrats who had made the military stalemate in Iraq a campaign priority. The Senate teetered on the verge of falling into Democratic hands as recounts in close races in Virginia and Montana were contemplated.

The speed of Rumsfeld's resignation caught official Washington by surprise. A combative bureaucrat with a razor-sharp wit, Rumsfeld was expected by many to depart only when conditions in Iraq improved.