Decision-Making Quote by Bobby R. Inman

Washington knife-fighting rarely announces itself as knife-fighting, and that is exactly why Inman's phrasing lands. "The standard rumor" is a bureaucrat's way of laundering an accusation: he can surface a widely believed motive while keeping his hands technically clean. It's a tell. In intelligence and national security circles, gossip isn't just entertainment; it's an informal record of incentives, rivalries, and the real logic behind personnel moves that official memos will never admit.

The alleged move is elegant in its cynicism. Appointing George H.W. Bush to run the CIA sounds like an honor, even a patriotic deployment. The subtext is exile-by-promotion: send an ambitious politician into a role that is powerful but politically contaminating, distant from domestic constituencies, and bound by secrecy. If you're Rumsfeld, the calculation isn't about the agency; it's about the succession. Bush becomes busy, boxed in, and less visible as a rival for the next presidential lane.

Context sharpens the edge. Post-Watergate America was suspicious of the intelligence apparatus, and the CIA was heading into the Church Committee era of scrutiny. Putting a prominent political figure in that seat could be framed as accountability, while also tethering him to whatever scandals or compromises might surface. Inman's line captures a recurring Washington truth: "public service" can double as strategic displacement, and the capital's most consequential moves are often sold as routine management.