      |
Quotes from the press |
| Here are some of the remarks about
Rummy I've been reading in the press over the past 15 months. But first, make sure you read the best articles about Rumsfeld:
These articles aren't as good as those above, but they're well worth a look:
If you speak German, you can read these very good articles about Rumsfeld:
French speakers can read this article from Le Monde. December 5th, Larry King Live,
CNN KING: Do you like this image? You now have this new image
called sex symbol. RUMSFELD: Oh, come on. KING: Come on -- I think you are the guy. RUMSFELD: For the AARP. I'm pushing 70 years old, Larry. KING: You're kidding? RUMSFELD: No. I'm 69 and half years old. Don't give me
that stuff. KING: Do you like being kidded on "Saturday Night
Live"? RUMSFELD: I must say I found it amusing. KING: Watched it? RUMSFELD: I did not watch it, no. And someone gave me the
tape, and then I saw it on CNN -- a part of it... KING: And? RUMSFELD: Well, it's amusing. It's in good fun. And I
thought it was clever. (LAUGHTER) KING: Touch some other base. RUMSFELD: Overstated, however. I'm not that bad. BBC News Who's hot in And it's not just the commander-in-chief who is, as
Newsweek would put it, a lean, mean fighting machine. Donald Rumsfeld, the 69-year-old
secretary of defence, is
While contemporaries are hunkered down in retirement homes, "Rummy" is bursting with vigour, his eyes so bright even his spectacles twinkle - and he has a humour as dry as the Afghan desert. He revels in his role as ringmaster of military operations, beaming with pride when the latest Pentagon video shows an al-Qaeda barracks going up in smoke. He has little time for euphemisms either. Asked to explain the use of cluster bombs on frontline Taleban positions he said: "The aim is to kill as many of 'em as possible." He's neither cuddly nor compassionate, but he has surely put the fear of God into the Taleban. The Donald Rumsfeld card in the Enduring Freedom collection is apparently selling well...
Q: Mr. Secretary? You'll have to excuse me, I'm a little
nervous being in the presence of a TV star this morning. Rumsfeld: Come on, now. Don't give me that stuff.
(Laughter.) Q: Anyway -- no, let me ask the question, please. Rumsfeld: I'll put up with a lot, but not that.
(Laughter.) Dec. 12 – Newsweek: The man of the hour, at least here, is Donald Rumsfeld,
who, as secretary of defense, seems to wish that he could personally push a 15,000 pound
“daisy cutter” out of the back of a bomber. With his wire rim glasses and
mid-50s corporate visage, he even looks like Robert McNamara! It’s as if the last 35
years of history—and doubt—had been deleted from our consciousness. Dec. 28 – Newsweek: In a culture searching for fresh faces and the next new
thing, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is a refreshing throwback. After 25 years
writing arcane papers about national security, Rumsfeld has emerged as the hero of the
small screen—our John Wayne. Dec. 24 issue – Newsweek: Donald Rumsfeld, the media star of the war. Rumsfeld: Oh, come on. Bowman: Parodied on Saturday Night Live,
and people supposedly watching soap operas, they'd rather tune into the briefing. Rumsfeld: Don't believe everything you
read. Bowman: Do you plan -- this is a serious
question. Can you use this newfound publicity in pushing -- CNN NEWSNIGHT Bob Franken : And Rumsfeld's blunt, public style
turned him into a virtual rock star. C-SPAN: "How are you handling the fact that you are
perhaps the first Secretary of Defense to have a virtual fan club? It is reported that
more people watch your daytime briefings than any other daytime show on the air. Do you
think there is really that much interest in military strategy, or is it your
charisma?" “You have a fan club for the old folks, too. I'm 60
and I'm looking at your mileage, and I hope that I'm just a small fraction of your
capability when I get to your age.” Defense Appropriations Bill Signing Ceremony PRESIDENT BUSH: I always love being introduced by a
matinee television idol. [Laughter, applause.] Who would've thought it? [Laughter.] SEC. RUMSFELD: Not my wife! PRESIDENT BUSH: Only his mother. [Laughter.] Thanks so much, Mr. Secretary. You're doing a fabulous
job. SEC. RUMSFELD: Thank you. PRESIDENT BUSH: He really is. Jan. 28 – Newsweek: After getting badly cut up by leaks from the uniformed military who were resisting his attempts at reform before September 11, Rumsfeld has emerged as a gruff but reassuringly macho presence at the Pentagon’s televised midday briefings. Bush has recently begun calling the secretary of Defense “Matinee Idol.” (“Yeah,” chipped in Cheney, “for the AARP crowd.”) Interview with NBC Meet the Press - Russert: Before you go, I was at the White House Wednesday
and Thursday. I heard the president refer to you as a matinee idol. I picked up-- Rumsfeld: He likes to joke. Russert: --I picked up "The National Review,"
and let me show you the cover: "The Stud: Don Rumsfeld, America's New Pinup." How is your wife dealing with this? Rumsfeld: Joyce is amused by the whole thing. Russert: She gets it. (Laughter.) Rumsfeld: She thinks it's all a passing phase and life
will go on. Russert: Sixty-nine years old, and you're Rumsfeld: Come on. Get on to something serious, Russert. Russert: On to Enron. Thanks for the segue. (Laughter.) The Rumsfeld's
Surrender Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has it going. The Taliban scatter before his forces. The press
swoons before his briefing room sallies. His Pentagon hit the jackpot in the annual budget
sweepstakes. Fox News dubs him a "babe magnet . . . the new hunk of home-front air
time."
January 20, 2002, Sunday One consequence of Osama bin Laden's attack on Of course, there is more than wit and charismatic candor
at work. Manifest competence -- quickly winning the war in The Rumsfeld and
Powell: The Face-off There's been much chatter about how Secretary of Defense
Donald H. Rumsfeld has become a national sex symbol as the result of his boffo
performances with the media at Pentagon briefings. Rumsfeld, who's closing in on his 70th birthday, has been
on magazine covers, reportedly gets higher ratings than the daytime soaps when he does the
briefings, sales of his rimless glasses are soaring and even President Bush has taken note
of his stardom. "He's become such a pinup guy for older women,"
Bush joked recently, "that I've got a new nickname for him . . . Rumstud." Time - (…) in this war your media hero is steely-eyed,
clench-jawed Donald Rumsfeld. The New York Times (…) now that Rumsfeld has acquired beefcake status
(…) LA Weekly - December 14 - 20, 2001 The one superstar to emerge from A few weeks ago, Saturday Night Live ran a funny sketch in
which Rumsfeld kept telling Pentagon correspondents that their questions were stupid. What
was most telling about this spoof wasn’t Darrell Hammond’s impersonation but the
deadly-accurate portrait of how the secretary has cowed the press corps. They accept his
bullying not only because he gives them quotable material, but because his disdain taps
into their own quite reasonable self-loathing: These journalists know full well that they
keep showing up to hear the official word from officials who make no pretense that their
words are sure to be true. Rumsfeld was the first member of Bush’s team to use
Churchill’s famous line about how, in war, truth must be surrounded by a bodyguard of
lies.
Just when you thought the press coverage of the Bush
administration's war on terrorism couldn't get more surreal, along came the Wall Street Journal
on December 31st to up the ante. In an essay in the newspaper's "Leisure and
Arts" section, journal editorial board member Claudia Rosett described Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld's press briefings on the war in The adulation has carried over into the new year. During a
January 20th interview with Rumsfeld on NBC's Meet the Press, host Tim Russert held up a
copy of National Review with a cover story entitled "The Stud: Donald Rumsfeld,
America's New Pinup." And in a January 22nd essay, New York Times fashion reporter
Ginia Belafonte argued that "the post-Sept. 11 world has caused a certain kind of
woman to re-evaluate what she is looking for in a man . . . She has seen the valiant
efforts of rescue workers and remarked to herself that men like Donald Rumsfeld make big,
impactive decisions in the time it would take any of her exes to order lunch."
Millions of Viewers Tune In for a Daily Dose of Rumsfeld At the Department of Defense Press Office, in a dull metal
rack, 8x10-inch glossies of Rumsfeld disappear as quickly as his smile when a reporter
asks about the latest on the search for bin Laden. (Photos of President Bush sit mostly
untouched nearby.) Rumsfeld's portrait is 100 percent institutional —
suit and tie, American flag, wood-paneled office — but it's apparently a must-have.
It's a sought-after memento for women — young and old, news junkies or not — who
admit quietly that the 69-year-old grandfather is, well, "hot." A reporter for one of the networks confesses he's her
"biggest crush." "He's attractive the way any intense, intelligent man
is attractive," says another cable reporter. "Plus, he takes what he does
seriously — but he doesn't take himself seriously." Wars have long had their field generals and their pin-ups
and, more recently, their media "stars." But never before has one man been all
three. The New York Times The End of the Affair The New York Times Talking the Talk His Own
Way, by Golly "It's kind of like, as I said, running around the barnyard chasing a chicken," Mr. Rumsfeld said last November about the elusive Al Qaeda leader. "Until you get it, you don't have it." Since then, Mr. Rumsfeld has been asked so many times about the man he considers the ultimate "dead ender," he now answers with a grin, "How many times do I have to go back to the chicken coop?" The secretary is more direct when asked whether he wants Mr. bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, dead. "Oh, my goodness gracious yes, after what he's done?" says Mr. Rumsfeld, using an exclamation not normally associated with calling for someone's demise. "You bet your life." Mr. Rumsfeld, whose phraseology has been called "Rummy speak" inside the Pentagon, is the latest in a long line of government officials who have put their own stamp on syntax. Moreover, his words have leavened a Pentagon parlance normally freighted with arcana and acronyms. Take earlier this month, for instance, when Mr. Rumsfeld was busy canceling an $11 billion Army artillery system known as the Crusader. Senior Army officials drew Mr. Rumsfeld's anger when he learned that they had faxed "talking points" in support of the 40-ton rapid-fire howitzer to sympathetic lawmakers on Capitol Hill. "Some individuals in the Army were way in the dickens out of line," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters. "Someone with an overactive thyroid seemed to get his hands in his mouth ahead of his brain. And that happens in life." Mr. Rumsfeld seems to save his most pungent public remarks for the regular Pentagon news conferences he has clearly come to relish. His responses are unscripted, aides say, and are often delivered with a quizzical squint through wireless glasses, accompanied by a great flapping of arms and chopping of hands in the air. Mr. Rumsfeld is an Illinois native, but linguists say that does not shed much light on the origins of his idiosyncratic utterances. (They are separate and distinct from "Rumsfeld's Rules," a published list of adages he has collected over the years.) "Some of these mannerisms and things he says came right out of the womb with him," said Victoria Clarke, the chief Pentagon spokeswoman, who confided that she and other top aides often find themselves, to their horror, unconsciously copying their boss's speech and mannerisms. But friends say his remarks are also born of an unabashed enthusiasm for a job he first held a quarter-century ago, as well as a smart-alecky streak that helps warm up a military audience. Speaking to American troops at an air base in Kyrgyzstan last month, Mr. Rumsfeld threw open the floor to questions: "Yell out what you'd like to know and if I know the answer, I'll tell you the answer, and if I don't I'll just respond, cleverly." Mr. Rumsfeld will say how "old-fashioned" he is when it comes to keeping military secrets secret and the advice he gives to President Bush confidential. But he can also gush over the simplest form of new technology, as he did last fall at a Central Command briefing. "This is fantastic," Mr. Rumsfeld blurted. "I've got a laser pointer! Holy mackerel!" Exclamations like these are a part of the Rumsfeldian linguistic fabric. He peppers his speech with "Gosh," "By golly," "Goodness gracious," and "You bet!" It is a lexicon and style that has been parodied on "Saturday Night Live," converted into a collection of quotations on a British Broadcasting Corporation Web site, and become a Holy Grail for an online fan club (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rumsfeldfan). Rummy speak has caught the attention of linguists here and abroad who watch the secretary's televised briefings on CNN or C-Span. "He's got a rhetorical style that's distinct from conventional bureaucrats," said Allan Metcalf, an English professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., who is executive secretary of the American Dialect Society. "He's more of a straight talker." Other language mavens say Mr. Rumsfeld's style reveals much about his personality. "Affecting this down-home speech could serve several purposes," said Scott Sadowsky, a linguist at the University of Chile's Center for Cognitive Studies in Santiago. "It could be to hide or play down a personality that many would consider to be arrogant, haughty, domineering and abrasive." By all accounts, Mr. Rumsfeld is a tough boss. He often begins meetings by barking out, "Whose nickel?" (meaning "Why are we here?"). Mr. Rumfeld's saltiest epithet is "dadburn," but aides know they are in real trouble when he begins by saying, "I have a minimum of high regard for . . ." A stickler for precision, Mr. Rumsfeld can be downright persnickety when it comes to choosing just the right word or phrase, aides said. He has banned the phrase "National Command Authority," saying it imprecisely refers to the president and secretary of defense. He routinely chides people who say things like "The White House view is X" or "The State Department is opposed to the idea." In response he will say: "The White House is a building with no feelings or emotions. Who in particular within that building are you referring to?" Yet every once in a while Mr. Rumsfeld veers toward joining Yogi Berra and President George H. W. Bush as the third leg of the Bermuda Syntax Triangle. To wit: "I believe what I said yesterday," Mr. Rumsfeld said in February when discussing the creation of a multiethnic national Afghan army. "I don't know what I said, but I know what I think, and I assume it's what I said." Or: "I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty." Mr. Rumsfeld seems to reserve some of his most peculiar lines for the Pentagon podium. "You're beginning with an illogical premise, and proceeding perfectly logically to an illogical conclusion, which is a dangerous thing to do," he recently told a reporter. More than one questioner has had to settle for this answer: "If I wanted to answer that portion of your question, I probably would have, and I didn't." The Washington Post The Military's Media Showdown The media have lionized Don Rumsfeld, America's new cover boy, for his sassy style and take-no-prisoners briefings. Interview with The Daily Telegraph DONALD RUMSFELD, the US secretary of defence, is the unexpected hero of the war against terrorism. He is credited with the intellectual grasp and strength of character needed to identify the nature of the enemy after September 11 and to fight back fiercely. His press briefings, known as "the Rummy Show", attract an enthusiastic television audience because of their wit and directness. Although in his 70th year, Mr Rumsfeld even finds himself described in the American press as a pin-up. (...) TOBY HARNDEN: How is world stardom treating you? DONALD RUMSFELD: Oh, gosh. You know, I don't ever think about it. It's so funny. Guys walk up to me and say, "I've got to have my picture with you." And I say, "Why?" And they say, "Well, because my 98-year-old grandmother is in a nursing home in Louisville and she thinks you're wonderful." We've got a thing called the AARP, the association for old people. That's what they say is my audience. The Weekly Standard Who would have thought a press corps filled with liberals would make Rumsfeld, the hardest of hard-liners, into the rock star of the war against terrorism? Not Rumsfeld, I'll bet. The usually liberal Parade magazine ran a puff piece on him. Reporters have credited him with giving candid and often witty briefings. "Saturday Night Live" lampooned his facial contortions, body language, and curt treatment of questions. But it did so in a you-got-to-love-him fashion. (...) people may learn to like the press as much as they like, well, Donald Rumsfeld. US News & World Report The meeting also gave Rumsfeld a chance to test out some old material on a fresh crowd. The European press corps was putty in the hands of the secretary of defense, whose riffs about "the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence" and the difference between "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns" had many of the reporters doubled over with laughter. The Pentagon press corps, who have heard the same lines in countless Rumsfeld briefings, had a more subdued reaction. But with NATO expanding, the "Rumsfeld Unplugged" tour will now have more cities to play in. Fox
News - Heroism Is Hot: Women Love Manly Men Government officials have been called the new celebrities in the post-Sept. 11 world, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tops the list of hunks. The silver-haired 69-year-old might seem a little senior to be a sex symbol, but he has groupies gushing like 'N Sync fans. "He has this way about him that no matter what, he is going to get the job done," said Christy Faustmann, an event marketing manager in New York City. "He is going to avenge what happened. He is going to defend this country." Faustmann added that even though Rumsfeld is a tough leader, he also seems like a softy at heart. "He has a jovial side. He's got this little smirk that puts you at ease," she said. "He has an amazing ability to lead and be humble in his approach, which is extremely attractive." While dating Rumsfeld isn't likely — he's married — single women are seeking similar manly qualities with the help of matchmaking services all over the country. The NY Times Magazine Donald Rumsfeld is what used to be called a ''man's man.'' He is tough-minded, direct, virile, authoritative and sure of himself. As head of the Cost of Living Council in the early 70's, the designated inflation-fighter kept a tight lid on wages and prices and taught his deputy, a kid named Dick Cheney, how to crack the whip. He ran a tight White House as President Ford's chief of staff and later, in the business world, was named one of the 10 toughest executives by Fortune magazine. He is again secretary of defense, and woe betide the brass hat who tries an end run to lobby for a favored weapon. If he's so macho, then how come the phrase that comes most frequently to his lips -- the words heard most often at his high-powered news conferences -- is the sort of exclamation heard on ''The Golden Girls''? In the height of dudgeon, professing shock just short of horror, Rumsfeld can be heard with his grandmotherly trademark: ''My goodness gracious!'' To NBC's Tom Brokaw, who asked about the pace of the attack on Afghanistan, the square-jawed SecDef retorted, ''To hear your question and the urgency and 'Don't you need quick success?' -- my goodness gracious! go back to World War II.'' (Brokaw has done very well going back to World War II.) This was using the phrase as a straight interjection. Rumsfeld also uses it in an adverbial form modifying an affirmative. Asked if he wanted Osama bin Laden dead, he answered, ''Oh, my goodness gracious, yes, after what he's done?'' adding for emphasis, ''You bet your life.'' According to the spouse of a senior administration official, speaking at poolside on condition of anonymity, Rummy began using my goodness gracious at New Treir High School in Winnetka, Ill., where he first met his wife, Joyce, and continues to use it in expostulations at home. AARP Magazine Last year's terrorist attacks brought about one of these sea changes, the most striking evidence being the improbable ascendance of Donald Rumsfeld, the no-guff 70-year-old Secretary of Defense, to "America's new rock star," as The Washington Post declared in December 2001. Thanks in part to Rummy's lively Pentagon press briefings, the heretofore obscure Ford Administration veteran now boasts a multigenerational following, complete with Internet fan clubs. Newsweek Aug. 21, 2002 -- Bush and Rumsfeld clearly relish dashing our
assumptions. They both have a sparring relationship with the press corps. “Mr.
Secretary, would you like to say a few words,” Bush asked his counterpart at his
ranch. “I want to learn how you answer questions; they tell me you’re quite good
at it.” Bush finds Rumsfeld’s dismissive and sarcastic style with the press
endearing. White House aides will occasionally read Rumsfeld’s briefings and point
out highlights to the president for comic relief. At the ranch, Rumsfeld quibbled with a
reporter over her choice of words and told another he “looked good” because he
was the only other person wearing a suit. Newsweek The scene in Texas was also about the man who wasn’t there—and who represents the opposite pole in a foreign-policy team ever-riven by infighting, especially over Iraq. Colin Powell was off vacationing with friends in the Hamptons, and in an atmosphere of war talk, the absence of the Bush team’s leading moderate was widely noted. Bush went out of his way to stress that the Crawford meeting was about missile defense and “contingency plans,” not Iraq. But it was yet another reminder of Rummy’s ascendancy and the partial eclipse of Powell, especially since the war on terror began. National
Review - Rumsfeld, Fall Guy How can Don Rumsfeld — the two-time Secretary of Defense, the world-conquering businessman, strategic thinker, and GOP operator, the foremost stud of the Bush cabinet — possibly be failing? Two words: President Bush. As I argue in the new National Review, President Bush has left Rumsfeld in an impossible situation. The SecDef can adequately fund neither the current force nor the notional future force. Rumsfeld's failing, then, is really Bush's. Kenai Peninsula News -- Alaska Defense Secretary Rumsfeld earned rock-star status in
Washington with brash talk and a successful battle plan. Bumping The Washington Times Press
on, Don, press on While several of the administration's key Cabinet officers
were taking it on the chin, before the horrors of September 11 it was Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld who was predicted to be the first senior casualty of the Bush
administration for failing to keep the Pentagon under control. The Washington Post .
. . But He Plays One on TV: Ron Silver to Guest-Host 'Crossfire' On the other hand, the rep noted that when she moved to Washington recently, she had lunch with a bunch of youngish women who pronounced Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld handsome. So there you go. ABCNEWS.com
- Rumsfeld’s Got It Feb. 12, 2003 — Donald Rumsfeld is hot. Joe Millionaire's not. So says former supermodel Rachel Hunter, who was on Good Morning America today to promote the new TV contest show Are you Hot? The Search for America's Sexiest People. Hunter, who is one of the show's judges, ran down a list of who she thinks does and doesn't have sex appeal. She said she values personality as much as looks. "Sexy and hot come from uniqueness," said Hunter, 33. She'll look for come-hither eyes and quirky characteristics, not "beefcake or Barbies." Why Rumsfeld Is a ‘Yes’ Rumsfeld, the 70-year-old defense secretary whose bespectacled face is familiar to many Americans from Defense Department briefings, got Hunter's approval. "I love him," she told anchor Diane Sawyer. "He's just — he's really, obviously really strong." GOPUSA Which brings me to the man of the moment, the quintessential
Alpha Male and warrior Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, or as many of us like to
say, Secretary of War. Unquestionably, he is a natural leader, a "take charge"
type of guy often referred to as a "throwback" to a prior generation. But he
also has that "special something", which is thoroughly elusive, that "je ne
sais quoi" that you can't quite define. It's something that goes beyond confidence
and bravado. Rumsfeld projects as the epitome of charisma, intelligence and fortitude, a
Rock of Gibraltar, just like Rudy Giuliani. It's rare and you can't fake this, either you
have it or you don't. |
