Oh, this is a good one.
As most of America slept early last Sunday morning, the Bush Administration hustled and bustled to prepare for the Sunday morning talk shows — among others Colin Powell was appearing on Face the Nation and Donald Rumsfeld was booked on Fox News Sunday. Condi Rice was not scheduled to appear until prime time, when she would make a star appearance on CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ — the last in a long line of media appearances that caused 9/11 Commissioner Richard Ben Veniste to quip that “Condi Rice has appeared everywhere but at my local Starbucks.”
Well, others in the Bush administration did, apparently, make an appearance at the local Starbucks. And as the Washington Post reports today, one of them — obviously readying himself to prep Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld — left his notes on the table. Talking points, hand-written notes on spin tactics, and a hand-drawn map to the Secretary’s house were found by a resident of DuPont Circle, who made them available to the Center for American Progress. The name of said resident is being withheld at his request, as he fears that he may be accused on national television of being “disgruntled.”
CAP has labeled the docs “The Pentagon’s Papers” and posted them all online for our viewing pleasure (sans the directions to Rumsfeld’s house).
There aren’t any blockbuster scoops here, but there’s some embarrassing fodder that I’m sure the White House would have preferred to keep out of CAP’s hands.
If you check out the pdf, pay particular attention to pages 4 and 5. Page 4 is a sheet, dated Saturday, 4:30 p.m., with the words “Possible Q’s for Sunday Talk Shows” at the top. Unfortunately for Rumsfeld, there are no “Possible A’s” included, so the Center for American Progress took the liberty of answering the questions for him. Some of it is laugh-out-loud funny so be sure to take a look.