From today's New York Times:

Rumsfeld Resigns as Defense Secretary After Big Election Gains for Democrats

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 8, 2006

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Wednesday congratulated Democrats on their takeover of the House and strong gains in the Senate and announced he had selected a new defense secretary to oversee the increasingly violent conflict in Iraq.

Bush, reaching into the administration of his father, said that former CIA Director Robert Gates would replace Donald M. Rumsfeld as defense secretary.

To the end, Bush defended Rumsfeld's troubled tenure, calling him "a patriot who served this country with honor and distinction."

"I recognize that many Americans voted last night to register their displeasure with the lack of progress being made" in Iraq, the president said. "Yet I also believe most Americans -- and leaders here in Washington from both political parties -- understand we cannot accept defeat."

Gates led the CIA, under then-President George H.W. Bush, from November 1991 to January 1993.