She Will Be Missed...Or Not

(cue Queen)...Another one bites the dust.

Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend resigned yesterday (Nov. 20). I am sure that she will be missed in this Administration, that prides itself on twisting words (and reality!) to fit its policies rather than the other way around.

Remember, Fran was the one who had this classic exchange with CNN's Ed Henry filling in for Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room, Dec. 28, 2006:

HENRY: You know, going back to September 2001, the president said, dead or alive, we're going to get him. Still don't have him. I know you are saying there's successes on the war on terror, and there have been. That's a failure.

TOWNSEND: Well, I'm not sure -- it's a success that hasn't occurred yet. I don't know that I view that as a failure.

It's not a failure...it's a success that hasn't occurred yet.

One would think, then, that she would at least stick around long enough to experience the actual success. Yeah, well, she's kind of upset about that, but is sticking with her "can-do" (or, more accurately "can-say-that-we-will-do") attitude. This is from the Associated Press report:

"Do I wish that I was going to be standing here when they [Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri] are captured or killed? Absolutely. But I have no doubt that we will ultimately be successful," she said.

No doubt, huh? Not even the least little bit? Wouldn't it actually be a healthy thing for a Homeland Security Advisor to leave a little room for doubt so that efforts could be revised, altered, adapted to address what's happening in the real world? But, as with the President, "doubt" seemed to be a dirty word in Townsend's world. During the devastating wildfires in California, she said the federal effort to help was going "exactly the way it should be." Exactly? No doubt? No such thing as failure?

What a spirit! What a stubbornly deluded spirit!

Yes, we'll miss you, Fran. But, hey...We don't have to view this as a resignation. Let's just say it's a vacation with no specific return date. I bet no one will notice.