Posted on 10/31/2001 5:52:37 AM PST by PhiKapMom
Rumsfeld: from cheerful to angry
2001-10-31
By Paul M. Weyrich
I have known Don Rumsfeld for more than 30 years. As a congressman, he represented the northern suburbs of Chicago. He left the House when Richard Nixon offered him the chance to run the Office of Economic Opportunity. Later, when Gerald R. Ford became president, he named Rumsfeld to be his chief of staff and later appointed him to be his secretary of defense. When Ford left office, Rumsfeld threw himself into the private sector with exceptional enthusiasm.
He even mounted a barely remembered campaign for president because, as he told me, it was a fun thing to do. He became secretary of defense again for George W. Bush as a compromise candidate.
During all this time he was the kind of person who was constantly cheerful. He always had a twinkle in his eye. Just before Sept. 11, when he was being sliced and diced by the U.S. political and journalistic community as he attempted to "transform" the country's national defense, he never lost his perspective and sense of humor.
That outlook on life also shaped his outlook on politics. He didn't disagree with the conservative movement so much on philosophical grounds. For Rumsfeld, many of us were too negative. Life was supposed to be enjoyed. Nothing could be all that serious. That is why when I see Secretary Rumsfeld looking angry at various press conferences, and I hear even Fox News Network anchormen complaining that Rumsfeld is "cranky," then I know something is really seriously wrong.
From Rumsfeld's perspective, he simply cannot understand how Pentagon operatives can leak critical information to the news media when our Special Forces are conducting field operations in Afghanistan. He has said he is too busy right now to track down who did it but he made it clear that whoever leaked the information had committed a criminal act.
"Whoever is doing this is putting the lives of men and women in our forces on the ground at risk," Rumsfeld said over and over again. He seemed to grow more upset every time he mentioned the issue.
Another matter troubling Rumsfeld is that some in the media appear intent on compromising the safety of our armed forces by the kind of questions they ask. The secretary has made it clear that he simply will not reply to those kinds of questions. It may not have been that important to Rumsfeld while it was happening, but the culture has changed in the time between his past and present service as defense secretary.
The attitude of many reporters and many staffers in the bureaucracy is simply this: They don't care about what is important to the defense of the country. What they do care about is what advances their agenda. A Pentagon staffer thinks that by leaking secret information it will cause him to accumulate some brownie points with influential members of the media. And those in the media are always looking for headlines and ratings. Competition is fierce. Whatever gets these reporters on the front page or causes the TV reporters to get a talent fee for making a prime time news hour matters most. To hell with whether their story compromises our armed forces or the salvation of the nation.
Well, I'm for Rumsfeld. He is absolutely entitled to his outrage. I hope he continues to explain why he is upset to the American people. They need to know that there are people in the government and in the media who would sell out America. Who better to tell it like it is than Rumsfeld who is proving to be an extraordinary defense secretary; born, it would seem, for this moment.
Weyrich is president of the Free Congress Foundation in Washington, D.C.
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