You've done a heck of a job, Rummy

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/hes_out_but_som.html

 

Maureen Dowd in the NYTimes (It's Times Select so I'm posting the whole article).

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Poppy Bush and James Baker gave Sonny the presidency to play with and he broke it. So now they’re taking it back.

They are dragging W. away from those reckless older guys who have been such a bad influence and getting him some new minders who are a lot more practical.

In a scene that might be called “Murder on the Oval Express,” Rummy turned up dead with so many knives in him that it’s impossible to say who actually finished off the man billed as Washington’s most skilled infighter. (Poppy? Scowcroft? Baker? Laura? Condi? The Silver Fox? Retired generals? Serving generals? Future generals? Troops returning to Iraq for the umpteenth time without a decent strategy? Democrats? Republicans? Joe Lieberman?)

The defense chief got hung out to dry before Saddam got hung. The president and Karl Rove, underestimating the public’s hunger for change or overestimating the loyalty of a fed-up base, did not ice Rummy in time to save the Senate from teetering Democratic. But once Sonny managed to heedlessly dynamite the Republican majority — as well as the Middle East, the Atlantic alliance and the U.S. Army — then Bush Inc., the family firm that snatched the presidency for W. in 2000, had to step in. Two trusted members of the Bush 41 war council, Mr. Baker and Robert Gates, have been dispatched to discipline the delinquent juvenile and extricate him from the mother of all messes.

Mr. Gates, already on Mr. Baker’s “How Do We Get Sonny Out of Deep Doo Doo in Iraq?” study group, left his job protecting 41’s papers at Texas A&M to return to Washington and pry the fingers of Poppy’s old nemesis, Rummy, off the Pentagon.

“They had to bring in someone from the old gang,” said someone from the old gang. “That has to make Junior uneasy. With Bob, the door is opened again to 41 and Baker and Brent.”

W. had no choice but to make an Oedipal U-turn. He couldn’t let Nancy Pelosi subpoena the cranky Rummy for hearings on Iraq. “He’s not exactly Mr. Charming or Mr. Truthful, and he’d be on TV saying something stupid,” said a Bush 41 official. “Bob can just go up to the Hill and say: ‘I don’t know. I wasn’t there when that happened.’ ”

Bob Gates, his friends say, had been worried about the belligerent, arrogant, ideological style of Rummy & Cheney from the start. He fretted at the way W.’s so-called foreign policy “dream team” — including his old staffer and fellow Soviet expert Condi — made it up as they went along, even though that had been their complaint about the Clinton foreign policy team. A realpolitik advocate like his mentor, General Scowcroft, he was critical of a linear, moralizing style that disdained nuance, demoted diplomacy and inflated villains. In 2004, he publicly questioned the administration’s approach to Iran.

While Vice went off to a corner to lick his wounds, W. was forced to do his best imitation of his dad yesterday, talking about “bipartisan outreach,” “people have spoken,” blah-blah-blah — after he’d been out on the trail saying that electing Democrats would mean that “the terrorists win and America loses.”

“I share a large part of the responsibility” for the “thumpin’ ” of Republicans, he told reporters. Actually, he gets full responsibility.

W. has stopped talking about democracy as a standard of success in Iraq; yesterday, he said that Iraq had to “govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself.”

He was asked if his surprise at the election results showed he was out of touch with Americans. “I thought when it was all said and done,” he replied, “the American people would understand the importance of taxes and the importance of security.”

So it was just that the American people were too dumb to understand? W. also managed to bash Vietnam vets, saying that this war isn’t similar because there’s a volunteer army, so “the troops understand the consequences of Iraq in the global war on terror.” Is that why W. stayed out of Vietnam? Because he understood it?

An ashen Rummy was also condescending during his uncomfortable tableau with W. and Bob Gates in the Oval Office, implying that he was dumped because Americans just didn’t “comprehend” what was going on in Iraq. Actually, Rummy, we get it. You don’t get it.

“Baker’s no fool,” a Bush 41 official said. “He wasn’t going to go out there with a plan for Iraq and have Rummy shoot it down. He wanted a receptive audience. Everyone had to be on the same page before the plan is unveiled.”

They don’t call him the Velvet Hammer for nothing. R.I.P., Rummy.

 

And because fair use means nothing to you. This is the second article that you've posted in its entirety on just this page. Who cares if it is Webby who is held responsible for your stealing? Its appearent that you don't care about copyright laws. Thief

And I agree with Rummy on many things but none so much as this one:

 

The blowhard Chris is back again scolding me like some frustrated spinster.

Still haven't got over the fact that the majority of the American people have finally realised that a gang of thugs were running your country, have you? And you bought into The Fredo Gang's bullshit, hook, line and sinker.

And yes, Chris, I'm sure going to pay attention to Rumsfeld, of which nothing good can be said.

You truly are a dick.

 

Me being a dick is a matter of opinion. You being nothing better than a thief is not.

It is Times Select because the NY Times wants to charge for it - not allow thiefs like you to post it for free.

 

I suppose it would be a bad time to pointout that it's free access week for the NYT stuff?

 

Free access does not mean free reproduction in full week. They give the free access because they want you to go to their site. JR knows the copyright laws well because of the industry he's in. He just chooses to be a thief.

 

That was a great column.

 

Since his hero Rumsfeld has been more or less disgraced, Chris doesn't want to actually discuss the article. Instead we get this, a traditional tactic of his;

 

Chris's world:

Chris being a dick: Opinion
Iraq going poorly: Opinion
Global Warming: Opinion
JR nothing better than a thief: Fact


What Chris L says:

What Chris L does:

And I agree with Rummy on many things but none so much as this one:
Quote: "If you believe everything you read in Maureen Dowd, you better get a life." Donald Rumsfeld,
March 23, 2006

 

JR - I know you know the laws and you know what you continually do is wrong. I'm sure you justify it in your mind but that doesn't change the fact that it is still wrong. It's probably also in violation of the ToS of this board as well.

This is the last I'll mention it. You've shown that you can link pictures and you've shown you can link to articles. The fact that you choose to steal instead is your personal choice.

 

Promise?