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| A Day in the Life of Donald Rumsfeld |
| 2004-03-20 |
| Sworn in as the 21st secretary of defense on Jan. 20, 2001, Donald Rumsfeld has had a career that has taken him from the cockpit of a Navy fighter plane to the top spot at the Pentagon. In between, Rumsfeld has made successful pit stops in Congress and at the White House. He said he rarely gets burned out, except on the really long diplomatic missions. "The only time I ever really feel it is if I go a long period without exercise," Rumsfeld said. "The other risk factor for me is relaxing. Once you relax, you wind down and then it’s hard to get cranked back up again." Instead of using the humongous desk (Black Jack Pershing’s) in his office Don uses the same standup secretary he has had since 1969. He says that sitting makes him loggie. In a week that marks the one-year anniversary of the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld, considered one of the most intriguing figures in Washington, D.C., gave Fox News unprecedented access to view him in action throughout his daily schedule. I watched the Bret Baier hour long special that was simular to s CSPAN special that shadowed Victoria Clarke. Overall the CSPAN piece was superior - it included short segments with Pete Pace, Myers, Rumsfeld and others - but the Fox Special is worth watching if it reruns over the weekend. Here are some highlights: His take on the Spanish situation is that the race had been closing for weeks prior to the election. The view that the terrorists changed the election result may be fallacious but because it is a pervasive opinion it is an important perception. He opines, "weakness is provocative." He implies that the Sec Def job was simpler during the Cold War but that weakness was provocation then as well. Instead of micromanaging Rumsfeld uses meetings to inspire idea memos called snowflakes. On the day of the interview Rumsfeld generated 40 - a light day - but rolled out 108 on another day last week. His secretary should market an aerobic exercise video. Wolfowitz and he go together to big things than split for complementary tasks. (Getting down in the mud = fighting bureaucracy.) He has the famous satellite picture of the Korean power grid mounted under the glass of his coffee table as a tribute to the many thousands of US and Allied who gave their life in an effort that has resulted in millions of Koreans living in light instead of darkness. The parallel to Iraq is obvious. His wife Joyce does all the driving so that he can read. 72 in July, Rumsfeld regularly plays and beats one of his thirty something aides in squash. The aide played on the Naval Academy squash team an characterizes Rumsfeld’s game as a cerebral attack. He describes the President as available, interested and engaged. As an illustration Rumsfeld says that it is not unusual for Bush 40 questions in 30 minutes to crystallize the direction he wants to head. Bush then steps out of the process and lets it proceed, monitors the process through periodic updates and changes direction based on results. Rumsfeld thinks that Bush’s executive experience has made Bush more effective faster than he implies Ford was. Rumsfeld considers a cabinet level appointment to be more demanding that being a CEO of a corporation because investors monitor results through quarterly reports but presidential policy decisions are immediately analyzed when they are or before they are announced and second guessed to death well before they are implemented. He says that the interrogations following the Iraq War have offered a unique opportunity to generate the flip-side of Lessons Learned. Military planners are getting an excellent picture of whether they actually predicted correctly the rationalizations and decision-making processes of the opposing force. |
| Posted by:Super Hose |
| #6 Jump into a barrel of diesel-fuel. I love the detail about the desk! |
| Posted by: Evert Visser in NL 2004-3-20 3:34:47 PM |
| #5 LOL guys--Boris would know about a lot about hard-to-get-rid-of bacteria in that he is the equivalent of cyber jock itch here at RB... I love Donald Rumsfeld! He never disappoints and, in fact, delights me almost daily with his fabulousness. What a man! Rummy/Rudy 2008! |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-3-20 2:05:19 PM |
| #4 Try gargling with Summer's Eve, Boris. |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-3-20 1:25:41 PM |
| #3 Torch your pubes with lighter fluid; it worked for Richard Pryor. |
| Posted by: Raj 2004-3-20 1:23:25 PM |
| #2 Try Desinex. It worked for me once. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-3-20 1:08:05 PM |
| #1 Does jock itch ever go away on its own? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-3-20 12:58:21 PM |