The White House and the president have confirmed former Sec/Def Rumsfeld actually resigned the day before last November’s election and not the day after as previously believed.

The president actually received the resignation letter on the day of the election and chose not to interfere with the ongoing vote by announcing it the next day instead of the day it was received and accepted.

Donald H. Rumsfeld, who came to symbolize the Bush administration’s problems in the war in Iraq, resigned as secretary of defense one day before last fall’s elections, although President Bush did not announce the move until the day after the elections.

The White House confirmed on Wednesday that Rumsfeld’s letter of resignation was dated Nov. 6, 2006, the day before voters — many of them furious about the war in Iraq — evicted Republicans from the leadership of the House and Senate.

Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said that Bush received the letter and accepted Rumsfeld’s resignation on Election Day. The president waited until the next day to announce that he was replacing Rumsfeld with former CIA chief Robert M. Gates.

Bush said that the decision to oust Rumsfeld had come after a series of conversations with the then-defense secretary.

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Not only did Bush not telegraph his intention to replace Rumsfeld, but he also publicly stated in the days before the elections that he envisioned Rumsfeld serving in his administration for the foreseeable future.

“I didn’t want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign,” Bush said when asked about the statement by reporters. “And so the only way to answer that question and to get you on to another question was to give you that answer.”

In his four-paragraph resignation letter, which emerged after multiple Freedom of Information requests by the Associated Press, Rumsfeld does not mention the war in Iraq. The letter salutes Bush for his leadership and praises the troops for their courage.

Asked why the president did not announce Rumsfeld’s resignation as soon as he learned of it, Perino said that Bush was wary of influencing the ongoing vote.

“I know that one of the things that the president wanted to avoid was the appearance of trying to make this a political decision,” she said. “And that was very important to him, and I think that the American people can appreciate not playing politics with such an important decision.”

Some Republicans are going to be furious about this because they feel if Rumsfeld had resigned earlier they wouldn’t have lost Congress. I’m kind of on the side of not letting things like this influence an ongoing national congressional election, and it is one more thing that makes me personally admire this president.

He could have made the resignation request a week earlier and maybe held onto congress but decided to let the American public decide its own fate. Politically smart or not I find that to be admirable.

To see Secretary Rumsfeld’s resignation letter and the confirmation of the date the president saw it go here. (PDF viewer needed)