Hating Rumsfeld

If you haven't read the interview with Don Rumsfeld in GQ online you're missing something. It's long--16 internet pages--but well worth it.

The interviewer does her best to expose the monster she expected to find, or to get him to spill the beans on Bush and to apologize for the war, even bringing up Robert McNamara of Vietnam fame. Twice shes asks if he sleeps well at night. Rummy just whizzes on past most of it. All in all, an interesting look at a man who sees things in vivid black and white, totally contrary to modern America.

The "eastern media" (as Rummy called it) honed in on a few low level Bush-bash snippets from this article but missed a few other things, like his land sale to neighbor Julia Roberts or his adventure on a train after becoming a private figure again, which included an anecdote involving Anna Nichole Smith. There was also this:

We move on to some photographs. DHR in his Princeton-graduation photo, DHR on a unicycle, DHR with Gerald Ford in bedroom slippers. And a really creepy shot of DHR's face on a shooting target in Iraq. "These were found in the terrorist training camp," he explains. "Before the war even started, they were there." With you as the target?

"Yeah. When we conquered Baghdad, we went into this terrorist training camp and this was their target, all over the place. They were using these."

In the end you get the feeling he almost enjoys being the bad guy. Example, the Rummys retired to Taos, New Mexico, a well-known liberal maven, where a pickup driver once yelled and called him a warmonger. It seems to steel his resolve. You can almost feel the in-your-face under the surface. It's old school. But somewhere underneath it's gotta hurt when everyone in town treats you like the terrorists.

A book? Well, old school doesn't mean no books, it just means waiting until the former chief has left the building. Gerald Ford would be proud.