What I Like About Donald Rumsfeld...

...could pretty much fit in a thimble.

But, unlike most of Bush's cronies, he does have this charming tendency to say what he really means instead of presenting a "nuanced position" (read: lie). He does renege on what he says later, such as when he claimed to be using the Bizzaro-world definition of the word 'slog' when he said Iraq would be a "long, hard, slog." But he generally says what he means.

The point? Well, today on Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor, which ironically has the word 'fact' in it despite the lack of facts in the actual show, O'Reilly tried to get Rumsfeld to say that the US could not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon and become another North Korea. Rumsfeld said something like, "Iran is not doing anything to help itself" by attempting to gain nuclear weapons.

O'Reilly then said, "I'll take that as a yes." In other words, O'Reilly said, "Wink, wink, you're speaking in right-wing code, but I get what you're really saying." O'Reilly does that a lot with his conservative guests and I've never heard one refute O'Reilly's re-interpreting of their words.

But good 'ole crotchety Rumsfeld comes back with, "Bill, I generally say what I mean, and I said Iran isn't doing themselves any favors by what they've been doing," or something to that effect. No BS "wink, wink" here. That, at least, I kinda liked.

What I don't like is his utter incompetence to run a modern military. But at least he doesn't play footsie with Bill O'Reilly like the rest of the Vulcans do.