{"id":2169,"date":"2004-07-21T10:47:11","date_gmt":"2004-07-21T15:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/2169.html"},"modified":"2004-07-21T10:47:11","modified_gmt":"2004-07-21T15:47:11","slug":"rumsfeld-reemerges-for-an-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/rumsfeld-reemerges-for-an-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Rumsfeld reemerges for an &#8216;interview&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just last week, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/articles\/A52714-2004Jul15.html\">AP reported<\/a> that Donald Rumsfeld, his popularity dropping precipitously, suddenly seemed to be hiding. After years of high-profile interviews and televised briefings, it seemed like the White House, in full campaign mode, wanted to shield a controversial failure like Rumsfeld from public view to bolster the campaign&#8217;s prospects.<\/p>\n<p>But the Washington Post&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/ac2\/wp-dyn\/A64803-2004Jul20?language=printer\">Al Kamen noticed<\/a> that Rumsfeld may have curtailed his media interviews, but he&#8217;s still out there chatting with reporters. Well, at least some &#8220;reporters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday, Rumsfeld emerged from his exile to talk to Blanquita Cullum of conservative Radio America. Checking the transcript of the interview shows the kind of discussion Rumsfeld likes. Here&#8217;s how it ended:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Cullum: &#8220;Thank you, Mr. Secretary.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rumsfeld: &#8220;Well, thank you, Blanquita. It&#8217;s fun to talk to you, and I hope to do it again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cullum: &#8220;Well, you know I&#8217;m one of your big fans. I love you a lot.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rumsfeld: &#8220;Oh, terrific. Come and see us when you&#8217;re in Washington.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cullum: &#8220;Well, I live here. In fact, I work for the president. I&#8217;m on the Broadcasting Board of Governors for you guys.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rumsfeld: &#8220;Well, for Pete&#8217;s sake, why doesn&#8217;t [Pentagon spokesman] Larry DiRita get you over here someday?<\/p>\n<p>Cullum: &#8220;I would love it because, you know, I&#8217;m out there on TV a lot, and I&#8217;m one of your biggest allies. I stick up for you all the time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rumsfeld: &#8220;Good for you. Thank you. I appreciate it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cullum: &#8220;Take care, Mr. Secretary, and bless you. Thank you very much.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rumsfeld: &#8220;Thank you.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We&#8217;ve finally found the kind of interview Rumsfeld can endure. What a brave soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just last week, the AP reported that Donald Rumsfeld, his popularity dropping precipitously, suddenly seemed to be hiding. After years of high-profile interviews and televised briefings, it seemed like the White House, in full campaign mode, wanted to shield a controversial failure like Rumsfeld from public view to bolster the campaign&#8217;s prospects. But the Washington [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}