You know Midge Decter, right? She and Gertrude Himmelfarb are the alpha girls of the little neocon academy that got us into Iraq. They seem to have married or mothered every arm chair warrior in a bow tie on the team, with the possible exception of George Will. When gushing excerpts from Midge's book about Rumsfeld first circulated they created quite a stirâ"manliness" was back, and Rummy was exhibit #1, and Midge was smitten. But now EVERYBODY knows we don't have enough troops on the ground to "finish the job" (that loathsome expression, so redolent of arrogance, drill a well, harvest a forest, conquer a country, build somebody else's nationâall in a day's work), and the boys on the neocon campus have been setting Rummy up to take the fall for a while.
But I want to hear from Midge. Will she admit that the qualities over which she once swooned moved her manly man to bulldoze past Shinseki and the other professional soldiersâthose more modest manly men who actually knew what they were talking about?
Personally, I find Rumsfeld's demeanor borderline parodic. I keep expecting the Monty Python chorus line to pop up behind him singing "He's a lumberjack, and he's OK..."
But, whatever. He got his way. What a man!