Firing offenses

I'm with Digby on this one: McCrystal needs to go. Somebody who says that their biggest issue is with the "wimp in the Whitehouse" is somebody who can't be trusted to follow the chain of command.

I can't speak for anyone else, but my belief that he should fire McCrystal or at least accept his resignation (which is as far as he should go to appease the military) has nothing to do with any skepticism of the war. It has to do with respect for the constitutional requirement that the military be subordinate to the civilian executive. The military has been acting more and more as a rogue political faction with its own power base for quite some time. No president of either party should allow that (although it must be said that Bush's fetishizing of "the Generals on the ground" and The Man Called Petraeus has contributed greatly to this problem).

This isn't something to play with. Obama should accept his resignation.

The press will spin any decision as some kind of Democratic failing, so he might as well do the thing that is right on principle and shows some self-respect.
(via a Medley tweet)

Update: Well, he did it! That's heartening, although I don't expect things to change much as a result...