Bill Kristol Trashes Donald Rumsfeld

Via Dave, who is similarly annoyed with the Washington Post's "free" registration. So I'll exerpt. I'm good that way.

"Actually, we have a pretty terrific Army. It's performed a lot better in this war than the secretary of defense has."

"Contrast the magnificent performance of our soldiers with the arrogant buck-passing of Rumsfeld."

"All defense secretaries in wartime have, needless to say, made misjudgments. Some have stubbornly persisted in their misjudgments. But have any so breezily dodged responsibility and so glibly passed the buck?"

That's really the heart of it. Kristol's main argument is that Rumsfeld is a buck-passer, as though the admission of fault would somehow improve his performance. (NOTE: the ability to admit fault can certainly improve future performance, but the admission of past fault doesn't change the past - it only arms your critics).

All I have to say about this is that Bill Kristol talks pretty big for a guy who used to be a male stripper:

Put some clothes on, then get back to us.

Thanks to Dave, who gave me an excuse to finally use my "Bill Kristol as a stripper" picture.