Donald Rumfeld’s getting a lot of criticism from powerful Republicans, as you might have heard. From John McCain, yes, but also Trent Lott. And Susan Collins. And Chuck Hagel. And Norm Coleman. Many of them are calling for his resignation.

Wow! What we can glean from this is that after 4 years of stellar, circumspect, admirable service to his country and deft prosecution of the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld has suddenly made a ton of unpardonably bad choices in the past five weeks. I mean, how else could you possibly explain all of these prominent and patriotic Republicans not speaking out beforehand?

There was the election of course. But who could ever believe that powerful public servants who’ve vowed to act in the best interest of our country would voluntarily remain silent while they watched the Secretary of Defense inadvisably put American lives on the line? Who could believe that? That would imply that they were willing to see our soldiers die in an ill-managed war rather than risk losing the White House. That would be almost treasonous. It’s inconceivable!

Nope. It has to be that this was a really, really bad month for Rummy. Until just a few weeks ago, these fine senators believed that Rumsfeld was doing a terrific job, and only in recent days has he suddenly become the kind of guy who makes rash decisions, ignores good advice, plans poorly, and fails to provide for our fighting men and women.

It seems odd that this would all happen so quickly. But the alternative is unthinkable.