Since I’ve confessed to liking Clippy, I might as well admit that Donald Rumsfeld is my favorite political television character. Unfortunately, I keep finding that my favorite TV shows get shifted to all kinds of odd times or get cancelled.
As many bloggers know, Rumsfeld is responsible for the legendary Rumsfeld Rules, the nearest equivalent we’ll see to a modern day Sun Tzu’s Art of War. You can dive in at any point and find a gem, For example, “Reduce the number of lawyers. They are like beavers — they get in the middle of the stream and dam it up.” There’s great stuff in there.
As we gird for the coming political battle and learn whether it will be Rumsfeld who become the sacrifice to Washington politics (rather than, say, George “It will take at least 5 more years to get our intelligence to the level it needs to be” Tenet?), I highly recommend reading James Mann’s Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet to get some sense of the history and background of the players and the underlying issues.