Rumsfeld vs. The Press

Sometimes you wonder if the press doesn't like Donald Rumsfeld. After Thursday's "contentious" DOD press briefing, wonder no more.

The press clearly see Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as lacking a fundamental understanding of the press's function in a democracy:

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters today to "just back off" and "relax" instead of looking for differences between U.S. and Iraqi officials on benchmarks for progress in Iraq toward political and security goals, and he rejected the idea of penalizing any failure to hit the targets.

Of course, it didn't help that Rumsfeld mocked reporters, said that the press was creating "mischief" and shouted down Jim Miklaszewski when he asked a question not precise enough to be worthy of a Rumsfeld answer. Telling the press to stop doing what they do is ridiculous.

Senator John Kerry's staff clearly saw that Rumsfeld's arrogance and defensiveness weren't working in his favor and took the opportunity to pounce, saying that "Today a secretary of defense, who should have been fired a long time ago, lost even greater touch with reality." Rumsfeld's beleaguered, and I'm sure the press will have its chance to mock him when he's gone.

My biggest problem is that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld revealed that the benchmarks supposedly being set for security in Iraq -- rejected by Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, but no matter -- won't be real benchmarks, because those would affect American and Iraqi public opinion and help us determine whether the war is succeeding on the Administration's own terms.

And this Administration does not want to let anyone, let alone the public, determine whether the Iraq war is going well based on any set of criteria that can be reviewed and reported on by the press, even if those criteria are ones of its own choosing. Be prepared to be disgusted when those benchmarks come out.