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.

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Comments

[strangelet]

Jason, I won't yell at you, but your approach to this is awfully close to the Beltway media "move forward, don't look back" meme.

It may well be that Code Pink sometimes yells at people inappropriately, but I personally think that Donald Rumsfeld should be yelled at -- loudly and perhaps profanely -- whenever the opportunity presents itself. I know it won't change the mediabots' opinions. He just deserve to be yelled at until he dies.

[Mij13]

I agree.

[Caton]

It is exactly as Dean Broder would have it. WE have a new dean in cybertown, his name is Kos. Dean Kos, the faux, sexist, "liberal" has decreed that women who protest are to be shunned, and this blogger as well as most of the "liberal" blogsphere have gotten in line. They have their own cocktail party circuit to worry about you know.

[Michael Trask]

.

these criminals can be allowed no peace in public. too many have died needless horrible deaths. remember to be good to the soldiers that faithfully carried out the orders of these hate mongers.

i am so proud of code pink

.

[BetsyNZ]

At least they had the guts to speak out .
Good on them I say.

I would have been hard pressed not to have head butted him or given him a GIANT wedgie on finding myself that close !

[Morocco]

Priceless!

[sherpaswami]

bring back the guillotine!

[gcedillo]

I wholeheartedly disagree - - dignity is worthless, its the last resort for cowards.

Why should Rumsfeld be allowed to rest? He should hear that every morning he wakes up and every night before he goes to bed -- (like Saddam, who couldn't sleep in his cell -- "how could a sympathetic man?") if there are groups or activists who will make his life a living hell until he can be brought to justice -- or at the very least -- called to answer for his administrations actions... than yes, I think he can withstand a little shouting every now and again... or a shoe tossed at him.

(let's face it, that's all he'll ever get -- no one is going to arrest these people)

[retromega]

This "protest" seemed to ignore what a snake rumsfield really is. Yeah, he killed lots of Iraqis. He also kept Saddam in power for years and years, provided him with nerve gas, and helped him use it on Iran. His bungling is also responsible for the loss of lots of American lives, and the physical and mental destruction of many other American service men and women. And that is just a short list of his talents as a member of government.

Too bad these women decided to holler "war criminal, he killed millions of Iraqis" instead of something that would resinate more with the American people whom I'm assuming were their intended audience. Most of us remember Rummie for protecting us on 9/11, torturing at Abu Grabib and Gitmo, and leading us to near disaster in Afghanistan and Iraq - our Secretary of Disasters!

[swo68]

That woman is insane. Could you imagine being married to her?

[CryptoSolipsist]

You can't deny that she has passion. Probably a wildcat in the sack.

[swo68]

Haha you may have a point there...

[ddanimal]

eh, whatever. they come across as obnoxious. I'm sure they are a turnoff to many people, even many that agree with them.

Some well-written signs and banners would have been a LOT more effective.

[matt t]

1- First and foremost this disturbance did get broadcast & exposure. Mission accomplished.
2- No word uttered by the protesters were untrue!
3- If they were not lone voices they wouldn't sound as simply annoying regardless of the message (like when Dan Quayle - yes him - got out of his car in chinatown in san francisco the crowd booed him loudly enough that his security packed him and scooted away. The media picked it up and it was one heck of a loud message to his popularity).
4- These women are brave. They step up and say what they think. In this case the man needs to be in jail, yet he's going around like nothing happened!!!
5- These women lit a debate (the one we're having) about what should be done and not forget what he did. That is an important noble act.

Let's not be simplistic, as the MSM media often fails to portray decent protest what it actually is, in effect it weakens its decent message, derailing the pesky liberal camp from being effective...

Worse yet, let's not bash the courageous women and be indirectly condoning the wrong side !

[futate01]

I think these women are fantastic. People in America have become complacent while the rich are r@p!ng you into the g@ve. If more Americans would do this this government would not be so corrupt. Imagine if anyone did something corrupt "we the people" ridiculed them in public, and then actually went out and voted them out of office. Just think about that. Americans have forgotten that this is a country of "we the people" and keep expecting someone else to to their justice for them. Who? Who do you think is going to come and rescue you Americans? ...form yourselves?

America will continue to fail until the people rise up.

[mypicasso]

We did. We rose up and voted for Obama. This is a solid and substantial accomplishment. And like LBJ, I believe Obama will get a lot done with the Democratic majority we currently have.

[sherpaswami]

oh really? let's just see about that! the vast majority of our democrat "leaders" are losers...cowards that have been bought long ago. from now on, I will only vote independent b/c there is really no difference between the two parties! We desperately need real leadership and REAL change. I'd like to see that Savior Obama do something that didn't help his rich, elite donors just once. If all the democrats would vote Independent in the next election then things would be a lot different and we might just be able to keep the middle class. I urge you all to not buy into the cheap talk and charismatic speeches

[senorlou]

Code pink's got some balls!
Should we allow people responsible for the deaths of untold thousands to just stroll on by?

[maxwellinformed]

That was beautiful.

[Realist1980]

I despise Rumsfeld and the Bush administration. However, this is a silly and ineffective way of protesting.

[strangelet]

What have you done that was non-silly and effective?

[matt t]

Quite funny!

I would even make it easier on him: What has he done that was only one of the two: non-silly OR effective ?

[crazycloud14]

tell us what you have done to combat Rumsfeld
and his band of Nazis.

[dems08]

there should be thousands... no millions in the streets calling for rummy's prosecution

[senorlou]

It's true. We may get our wish.

[twintwine]

Yes. But that would rule out calling him a war criminal, unless a fair trial did deem him as such.

First things first. The Bush Administration tried its best to get us away from reality. We can go back now.

[sherpaswami]

a fair trial? do you really think we the people will get a fair trial??? stop believing Obama will save you and stop relying on the government for fairness. the only way we "can go back" is by ourselves! the gov't is not going to willingly give us our rights back.

[petman2001]

Yes, it 's easy to mock these ladies and to point out how irrelevant their actions are. However, when we look to the Justice Department and our so-called elected "representatives" to investigate the atrocities done by Rumsfeld (& the whole Bush cabal) in our name---and only hear silence from those in our government who should be investigating (and prosecuting), what options are left for us. We should ALL be out yelling at these criminals.

[senorlou]

I totally agree. Why be polite to known murderers of thousands? Rumsfeld used very effective weapons to do it. Lies.

[bododavid]

I don't like Rumsfeld or agree with his policies, but you can't call somebody "a known murderer of thousands" unless that has been proven in a court of law. Any people who argue by being rude aren't really arguing, they're just making themselves look like fools.

[mypicasso]

At the very least, I hope the ladies felt better when they were done!

[twintwine]

A public scolding may work to affect a child, but what does it do for a former Secretary of Defense?

Bush Administration may have treated its citizens like children, but hopefully we have learned that this type of behavior is not something we want to promote or engage in.