Well, at Least the Reference to Rumsfeld Made It Into the Post

First of all, I’d like to take a moment for special remembrance on this date...

So best birthday wishes to my uncle Rick and a happy tenth anniversary to my brother and sister-in-law (talk about bummer coincidences, eh?).

In other news, upon further investigation, it appears that at least the mention of Rumsfeld’s comments did make it into the Post — although in a completely different story. The new story, “Bush Pushes Iraq Plan,” focuses on Bush’s campaigning for his mind-boggling $87 billion budget for Iraq’s reconstruction. The fact that Rumsfeld’s gone off the deep end is referred to in the opening paragraph, but the quote in question doesn’t appear until much further down. Although the story is credited to Mike Allen, a footnote indicates that Dana Priest — who is traveling with Rumsfeld and the one whom I believe wrote the original article — contributed to the report.

I’d argue that this marginalizes the frightening impact of Rumsfeld’s statements, but at least it’s in there, so the Post folks do get a pass as far as “covering up” the story goes.

Speaking of that budget request, it strikes me that there’s only one course of action that any opposition legislator can do, and one that nobody out there seems to be mentioning: Say, “No.” Flat out. No, you can’t have the money.

Oh, I know that we can’t afford to just pull out of Iraq now — like it or not, we’ve made our bed. But first of all, since the Republicans control both houses, the “no” votes would be strictly symbolic. And second, let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that the request did get rejected. Does this mean the money won’t be spent? Of course not. But it does mean that little George won’t be let completely off the hook for his idiotically reckless tax cuts for his billionaire buddies. You want the money, asshole? You figure out where to get it. One one hand, that means repealing your ridiculous tax cuts, and on the other, you’ll actually have some incentive for going to the international community for help. Right now, that’s getting nowhere, because Bush isn’t willing to give up any of the billions in reconstruction contracts (“Here you go, Halliburton!”), and the rest of the world would like nothing better than to watch the little son-of-a-bitch squirm.

As would I, of course.