Adultery?

Lance has a good post on the Byrnes firing, and floats a few theories:

We know that in most cases like this when somebody’s fired for what looks like no good reason, the real reason was personal or political.

In every organization, from the local Wal-mart up through General Motors and over to the United States Army and back down to the town police department and the Methodist Church and the corner drugstore, bosses fire workers for no other reason than they don’t like them.

Lance suggests that the relief may have something to do with a) Byrnes support of General Claudia Kennedy, a three star who accused other Army personnel of sexual harassment, or b) Byrnes open clashes with Rumsfeld and other neocons. I’m more of a mind of the latter, with the former playing an enabling role. It might have been harder to fire a four star who was well liked among his peers than one who was perceived (potentially) as a backstabber. Of course, we won’t know unless Byrnes and the other principles give their story, and even then we’ll only approach the truth at an angle. Nevertheless, Byrnes as victim of a clash with Rummy sounds about right. Byrnes position as head of TRADOC, where the Army assesses and plans its future, would seem to support the notion that this is, at least partly, a conflict over control of doctrine.

Lindsay has more, as do Arianna Huffington and Armchair Generalist.