Most unwanted job ever: Praising Donald Rumsfeld's body of work
If someone were to tell me my life depended on writing a speech that showered soon-to-be former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with praise, my answer would be simple:
Shoot me now.
Luckily that's not the case. But there's some poor schmuck being forced to wrap Rumsfeld's six year tenure of garbage in a shimmery package to show off at the Pentagon today.
From USA Today:
Like Rumsfeld, I too realize the world is faced with a threat like none that has come before. With Rumsfeld's departure at least a small part of that threat has been erased. If Democrats would grow a spine and take advantage of Representative McKinney's final parting shot at the Bush administration (articles of impeachment), we could really wrestle this new threat to the ground.
As for Rumsfeld's legacy – maybe if that concern had popped into his head once or twice before he bungled the "War on Terror" by letting Osama slip through his fingers, ignored and fired generals who pointed out the errors in his bogus Iraq policy, and generally made the wrong decisions at every turn, he wouldn't have to worry about the nasty excerpts that are bound to be put in the history books next to his even nastier perma-scowl.
But the cold reality for Rumsfeld is that his legacy, no matter how much he begs, is stained beyond repair. And in a few more days he will quietly hobble out of the national spotlight and his only shot will be to pray that he is soon forgotten.
(Cross-posted at Hines Sight)
Shoot me now.
Luckily that's not the case. But there's some poor schmuck being forced to wrap Rumsfeld's six year tenure of garbage in a shimmery package to show off at the Pentagon today.
From USA Today:
With an eye on his legacy, Rumsfeld asked to be judged by the extraordinary nature of today's threat, like none that has come before.
Like Rumsfeld, I too realize the world is faced with a threat like none that has come before. With Rumsfeld's departure at least a small part of that threat has been erased. If Democrats would grow a spine and take advantage of Representative McKinney's final parting shot at the Bush administration (articles of impeachment), we could really wrestle this new threat to the ground.
As for Rumsfeld's legacy – maybe if that concern had popped into his head once or twice before he bungled the "War on Terror" by letting Osama slip through his fingers, ignored and fired generals who pointed out the errors in his bogus Iraq policy, and generally made the wrong decisions at every turn, he wouldn't have to worry about the nasty excerpts that are bound to be put in the history books next to his even nastier perma-scowl.
But the cold reality for Rumsfeld is that his legacy, no matter how much he begs, is stained beyond repair. And in a few more days he will quietly hobble out of the national spotlight and his only shot will be to pray that he is soon forgotten.
(Cross-posted at Hines Sight)
Labels: Impeachment, international politics, Iraq, National Politics
