Another Rumsfeld Lie Swept Under the Carpet

Senator Clinton grilled Secretary Rumsfeld today over his inaccurate portrayals, during the past three years, of the security situations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both the New York Times and the Washington Post insufficiently reported the moment, characterizing it as a just another catfight and glossing over Rumsfeld's latest lie, a whopper so egregious as to be nearly invisible. Read the transcript of the exchange and then see how it was reported by the Times and the Post.

Clinton: There's a track record here. This is not 2002, 2003, 2004-5, when you appeared before this committee, and made many comments, and presented many assurances that have, frankly, proven to be unfulfilled.

Rumsfeld: Senator, I don't think that's true. I have never painted a rosy picture. I have been very measured in my words. And you'd have a dickens of a time trying to find instances where I've been excessively optimistic. I understand this is tough stuff.

Apparently Rummy has still not heard of the internet, where any goober with Google can suss out statements of his like this one from 2003: "It is unknowable how long that conflict [the war in Iraq] will last. It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." Or this from the same year: "[t]here is no question but that [American forces] would be welcomed" by the civilian population of Iraq.

Rumsfeld was ripped apart by Clinton, but you'd never know it from reading the papers. The Times summarizes the Clinton-Rumsfeld match this way:

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, accused Mr. Rumsfeld of being inconsistent over the months in his assessment of the military situation.

"Senator, I don't think that's true," Mr. Rumsfeld said, declaring that the senator would have "a dickens of a time" documenting her assertion. But Senator Clinton did not back down, and she said she would introduce evidence of her assertion into the committee record.

But Clinton didn't accuse the Rumsfeld of being "inconsistent." She accused him of being an untrustworthy liar and a thoroughly incompetent Secretary of Defense. "Under your leadership," she said, "there have been numerous errors in judgment that have led us to... a full fledged insurgency and full blown sectarian conflict in Iraq." "You underestimated the nature and strength of the insurgency, the sectarian violence, and the spread of Iranian influence," she continued, finishing with "you are presiding over a failed policy. Given your track record, Secretary Rumsfeld, why should we believe your assurances now?"

Though easy enough to do, no one at the Times bothers to dig up any of the many published comments of Rumsfeld that would disprove his assertion, and the Post's story says only that "under tough questioning by Sen. Hillary Clinton about previous appearances before the committee, he denied that he had ever 'painted a rosy picture' of the situation in Iraq."