Matthew Yglesias

Nov 26th, 2008 at 8:17 am

Don Rumsfeld

Via Kevin Drum, Fred Kaplan on Don Rumsfeld’s efforts at rehabilitation:

During his six years as defense secretary, Rumsfeld famously wrote hundreds, maybe thousands, of memos to subordinates they fell so rapidly from on high that his aides called them “snowflakes.” According to several officials, many of these snowflakes contradicted one another; he seemed to be staking out several positions on key issues so that he could later claim that he’d taken the right side. In his forthcoming memoirs, he will no doubt quote chapter and verse from just the right snowflakes. Readers, be forewarned he’s blotting out the full storm.

Indeed. Relatedly, I reviewed Doug Feith’s book. The difference, though, is that I think Feith is much more dimwitted which leads to a different brand of dishonesty.

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Filed under: Bush Legacy, Rumsfeld,

Aug 25th, 2008 at 9:29 am

The McCain campaign is sensitive to accusations that he would continue the Bush administration’s policies, and is very eager to avoid giving the impression that he would do so, though as best one can tell there aren’t any areas of national policy in which he proposes to implement significantly different policies. But optics-wise, it seems, they’d rather keep Dick Cheney far away from the convention. And not DC far; Azerbaijan far:

Vice President Cheney will travel abroad beginning September 2, 2008. President Bush has asked the Vice President to travel to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine and Italy for discussions with these key partners on issues of mutual interest. The Vice President will meet with President Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Saakashvili of Georgia, President Yushchenko of Ukraine, and President Napolitano and Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy, as well as senior officials of their respective governments. In addition to meetings with foreign leaders, the Vice President will attend and address the Ambrosetti forum entitled, “Intelligence on the World, Europe and Italy” in Lake Como, Italy.

Meanwhile, John McCain says that if he’d won the 2000 election, he would have made Dick Cheney vice president and Don Rumsfeld secretary of defense.