At a press conference the week before the elections, President Bush said that he wanted Rummy to stay on until the end of his presidency. The day after the Republicans were voted out of power, Donald Rumsfeld resigned as Secretary of Defense and the president immediately nominated Robert Gates to replace him. It was certainly the White House's decision to force Rumsfeld out.

When questioned about the timing of Rumsfeld's removal, Bush responded that he didn't want to make a major move right before the elections. That's fine, except he said Rumsfeld was doing a fantastic job and he would support him just 6 days before the election. That was a lie, and the press is all but ignoring it.

So Bush said he supported Rummy, and then he "reversed course," as his PR man Tony Snow would say. But that's not entirely true either, because in the November 8th conference the president admitted that he knew he was kicking Rummy out even when he said he supported him on November 1st.

What's the real problem here? Well, the president deliberatly misled the American people, and his followers specifically, by assuring them that Rumsfeld was staying. Then after election day, he immediately changed course. The lie was used to keep supporters on his side, and then it was exposed and regarded as "no big deal." Lies are a big deal, Mr. Bush. Former President Clinton told one tiny lie to America, and it almost cost him his presidency, and did cost him his dignity.
Media Matters - Bush acknowledged he lied about Rumsfeld, but media refused to call him on it