I’ve said it before (in a book eight years ago) but it bears repeating: Donald Rumsfeld is a miserable human being.

In Jon Meacham’s new biography of George H.W. Bush, the author quotes George the Elder’s describing Rumsfeld as “arrogant,” to which Rumsfeld, defending his role as an instigator of the disastrous 2003 invasion of Iraq, responded, “He’s getting up in years.”

The snide implication of course is that George H.W., now 91, is a doddering old man whose opinion is worthless; to which I would respond that in calling Rumsfeld merely “arrogant,” George the Elder was being both restrained and kind.

For a more accurate characterization of Rumsfeld I give you Lyn Nofziger’s response in the summer of 1980 when, after Ronald Reagan’s nomination at the Republican convention, someone suggested Rumsfeld as a possible vice presidential choice; to which Nofziger nodded, studied his cigar a moment, then said: “Rumsfeld? Yeah, he could be Vice President. But if he is, we’d better get Ron a food taster.”

 

Sound bite to remember (cultural note for the fall season):

“Football in the South helps define how we think about ourselves.”

–Whit Waide (Mississippi State faculty)