Washington

A FEW days after his party had suffered a devastating electoral setback during the 2006 mid-term congressional elections, then Republican President George W Bush announced the resignation of his Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld. The forced departure of one of the Bush Administration's leading figures was expected. The United States was still trapped in a no-win and unpopular war in Iraq that was managed by the Pentagon chief. And, by firing Mr Rumsfeld, Mr Bush wanted to demonstrate to the angry American voters that he would be making a major change in US strategy in the Middle East.

Now eight years later, Mr Bush's Democratic successor in the White House, following the major losses for his party in another mid-term elections, seemed to be doing a political rerun, standing in the East Room of the White House and showing his Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel the door.