Donald Rumsfeld Loudly Harangued At White House Correspondents' Dinner (VIDEO)

This video has been making the rounds, but in case you haven't seen it, here's Donald Rumsfeld getting shouted at by Desiree Fairooz and Medea Benjamin of the ubiquitous protest organization known as Code Pink. I gather that the big takeaway is that, in Code Pink's estimation, Donald Rumsfeld is a "war criminal." But don't take my word for it! Maybe my impression is based in a flawed parsing of all this subtlety.

[WATCH.]

Naturally, I'm not a big fan of Donald Rumsfeld, or the Iraq War strategy, or the foreign policy -- if it can be called that -- that came out of the Bush White House. And, on principle, I'm sort of okay with messing around with the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Nevertheless, I find it hard to divine the value of Code Pink yelling at Rumsfeld in this setting. In the first place, there's the pointlessness: the Beltway press are fully on board with "looking forward, not backward," and preserving comity, and not troubling their pretty little minds with the hurtful thoughts of the people they cover going to jail. And I promise you, this yelling at Donald Rumsfeld will only harden their position in this regard. But more to the point, I've watched Code Pink shout at Al Gore, of all people, at Netroots Nation, of all places, as he was explaining his national environmental policy initiative, of all the things to shout down. When you basically go out and disrupt EVERYTHING, it's hard to know where you stand on ANYTHING.

So, yeah, I find this stuff relentlessly unimpressive, but I've also found that plenty of people object to me saying so. Just like the Tea Parties! I nevertheless believe that just as crisis demands we not abandon our principles, our response to crisis demands we at least attempt to preserve a measure of dignity. And with that, everyone can start, you know, TOTALLY YELLING AT ME.

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Comments

[anabelle]

LOVE IT...good for them. Give those women awards. Where's that pie guy these days?
I've been waiting for someone to scream at Cheney in public, if we were at the same
gathering, I'd do it.

Why should Rumsfeld, Cheney and their ilk be treated with respect? They lied to the
American people, killed so many innocent people, their twisted egos thought 'shock
and awe' would have the Middle East on their knees begging for mercy. How wrong
they were, how wrong they are.

Good going girls, where can i sign up?

[commonsense79]

WOW!!!!!

[Judyisacutie]

Code Pink party crashers "don't always drink beer, but when they do, they prefer Dos Equis."

That took a ton of nerve!

[BelGazou]

Two harpies screaming changes absolutely nothing. If our legislators were overwhelmed by their constituents demands for hearings, the thought of not being reelected might light a fire under our lily-livered representatives and possibly get our AG to finally take serious action.

[doober]

Could it be that Obama is bringing the Banks, healthcare. Pharmaceutical and phoney Religions out from under their rocks so the people can see how corrupt and greedy they are. He is looking for pressure from the people to get things moving in the direction he wants to go..

[follow the money]

speaking of donald rumsfeld,
his name is at the top of this list here..


http://www.wanttoknow.info/corruptiongovernmentmilitary

[Khirad]

Code Pink are our teabaggers. What have they actually accomplished but alienating middle America? Is well deserved venting and outrage really worth it like this? How are they different than Bill O's stalkers? How are they not unintentionally, cringingly funny, like Sacha Baron Cohen? In politics, tone matters.

I think there are more productive ways to protest. I was with them when it was just the pink shirts and silent presence during hearings and such, but they've just become an obnoxious nuisance - an easy target of scorn for cons. And made be embarrassed to be flaming liberal.

I've always thought well done placards and candle light vigils were more effective than circus-like parades and drum circle antics. I thought the Daily Show's Rob Riggle really did a good job a while back exposing them as well-intentioned but misguided and loopy.

[MrsFonebone]

The intent was to embarrass this monster, who had the nerve to show up at this dinner.
I hope they succeed in shaming the shameless. If the media had one-millionth of their courage, we would have a better America.
Silent vigils. Monsters don't understand that.

[sail]

In politics, tone matters???

You think this is about POLITICS?

This foolish, FOOLISH attitude about how Code Pink people are somehow being a "nuisance" is EXACTLY why we find ourselves, helplessly stuck in this brave new country where our highest court overrules an election and delivers the presidency to a half-wit, self-impressed puppet who takes us straight into an illegal war, while the VP runs his own publically funded hit squad, tells Congress to "Go F itself", and responds to the fact that he has no public support with, "So?"

[JessWonderin]

oh wow . . . "candle light vigils" . . .

THAT sure helped close down Auschwitz didn't it?

And you totally missed Rob's intent . . . . "parady" is a tough concept for some . . . .

[zakon]

SHOUTING is so rude! But these WAR CRIMINALS will NOT EVER BE CHARGED. The other business party (The Democratic Party) is NOT INTERESTED IN MORALS AND JUSTICE. They just want to enjoy their day in the sun.

So rude! So rude! So rude! How dare you express your outrage. BE A GOOD GERMAN AND BE COMPLICIT IN MASS MURDER AND TELL YOUR GRAND KIDS ABOUT IT.

[doober]

Could it be that Obama is bringing the Banks, healthcare. Pharmaceutical and phoney Religions out from under their rocks so the people can see how corrupt and greedy they are. He is looking for pressure from the people to get things moving in the direction he wants them to go..

[pkafin]

Anyone who thinks that yelling in Donald Rumsfeld's face is ruder than what Donald Rumsfeld himself has said and done is out of their mind.

Those ladies did something that we all should be doing everywhere that man goes.

[BelGazou]

Shrill and unhelpful. It would be much better to write/call our legislators and put their feet to the fire and at least demand investigation and hearings, even as we wait for the AG to stop sitting on his hands.

[zakon]

Who in the WHITE HOUSE invited the WAR CRIMINAL to the WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER?

The other Business Party (The Democratic Party) is now running the criminal enterprise of Iraqi occupation.

PRESIDENT OBAMA WON'T LEAVE IRAQ UNTIL HE FINISHES THE WORK THAT THE WAR CRIMINAL RUMSFELD STARTED. Return on Investment = Iraqi Oil

[Ergon]

Bless Code Pink
And if Al Gore had properly disputed the Florida count
We wouldn't be in this mess would we?

[doglove]

I love knowing their days are numbered.

And I want to send those gals some $$$!!!

[Clarabell]

Well, I don't know!!! But after all that has happened in the Country during Bush's watch, we should have all been out in the streets banging on pots and pans -- We can't count on the MSM to tell the truth, so what do we do?

[disgusted48]

donate to code pink at

www.code4peace.org

[disgusted48]

oops
www.codepink4peace.org

[jlgcox]

I am not a Rumsfeld fan at all, but shouting in someone face is rude!

[disgusted48]

so is lying your way into a war.

[rchwel]

Yeah that was rude would have been better if her fist had been introduced to the lying criminals face .... face meet fist ! ALL bush administration crooks should be greeted and treated like that !

[bmermaid]

The problem is, if everyone does nothing, all of these guys, that lied us into a WAR, bankrupt our nation & tortured people, will get away with it completely. How would that be a good thing?

[jdlund]

Yelling at them in their face only makes you look foolish. No one will pay any attention to you outside of calling you a lunatic, security will escort you away (if you are somewhere that has secuirty) and even if you have a valid message it will be ignored. This is actually the same problem with conspiracy theorists, they actually enforce the status quo.

It makes all protesting appear as being nothing more than the enterprise of crazy people and whatever valid points you had to say are completely lost because it is burried in a package that will automatically be dismissed without a second thought. It makes dissent itself seem wacky.

People will assume that if the only one's saying x, y or z are lunatics then a person must be a lunatic to believe x, y or z and will wind up assuming the opposite is true, that everything is fine. So fine don't do "nothing" but screaming in someone's face (like crafting wild baseless theories about so and so being in the illuminati) is worse than doing nothing. You might as well go on a tour and campaign in support of Rumsfeld.

[pkafin]

Yes. It's rude. But, hardly an overreaction. In fact, it seems like the most cutreous thing possible that is still an appropriate reaction to what Rumsfeld has done.

Kudos ladies.