Note to Bush Admin: No More Public Q&A's

Today was a tough day for Rummy. Although he didn't face resignation calls from yet another decorated, troop hating military General, he was heckled twice by members of an audience in Atlanta. One woman spoke out by declaring, “I cannot stay silent, this man needs to be in prison for war crimes.” As she was being forcibly removed, the freedom-lovers in the crowd shouted, “get out of here!”

Another protester soon followed suit, as did a woman (and card carrying America-hater) named Patricia Robertson, who said she had lost her son in Iraq.

But that wasn’t Rummy’s biggest headache. His problem today was a man in the crowd who got to ask him some tough questions.

You’ll recall that our President isn’t the only one who doesn’t do will with live, unscripted Q&A’s, because Rumsfeld is determined to not let Bush stand in that embarrassing spotlight alone.

Today was no different.

Here’s the Transcript:

QUESTION: So I would like to ask you to be up front with the American people, why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has caused these kinds of casualties? Why?

RUMSFELD: Well, first of all, I haven't lied. I did not lie then. Colin Powell didn't lie. He spent weeks and weeks with the Central Intelligence Agency people and prepared a presentation that I know he believed was accurate, and he presented that to the United Nations. the president spent weeks and weeks with the central intelligence people and he went to the american people and made a presentation. i'm not in the intelligence business. they gave the world their honest opinion. it appears that there were not weapons of mass destruction there.

QUESTION: You said you knew where they were.

RUMSFELD: I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were and – (this is a LIE, see below)

QUESTION: You said you knew where they were Tikrit, Baghdad, northeast, south, west of there. Those are your words.

RUMSFELD: My words -- my words were that… -- no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let him stay one second (they tried to usher him out of the room). Just a
second.

QUESTION: This is America.

RUMSFELD: You're getting plenty of play, sir.

QUESTION: I'd just like an honest answer.

RUMSFELD: I'm giving it to you.

QUESTION: Well we're talking about lies and your allegation there was bulletproof evidence of ties between al Qaeda and Iraq.

RUMSFELD: Zarqawi was in Baghdad during the prewar period. That is a fact.

QUESTION: Zarqawi? He was in the north of Iraq in a place where Saddam Hussein had no rule. That's also...

RUMSFELD: He was also in Baghdad.

QUESTION: Yes, when he needed to go to the hospital. Come on, these people aren't idiots. They know the story.

(PROTESTER INTERRUPTS)

RUMSFELD: Let me give you an example.

It's easy for you to make a charge, but why do you think that the men and women in uniform every day, when they came out of Kuwait and went into Iraq, put on chemical weapon protective suits? Because they liked the style?...They honestly believed that there were chemical weapons.

Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons on his own people previously (weapons given to him by Rumsfeld during the Reagan administration). He'd used them on his neighbor (AUDIO GAP) the Iranians (again, 20 years ago, with our blessing) and they believed he had those weapons. We believed he had those weapons.

QUESTION: That's what we call a non sequitur. It doesn't matter what the troops believe; it matters what you believe.

MODERATOR: I think, Mr. Secretary, the debate is over. We have other questions, courtesy to the audience.

Unfortunately for Rumsfeld, proof of his lie was not only caught on tape, but has actually become an imfamous soundbyte, and an auditory symbol of disgrace and embarrassment for this White House regarding their 100% certainty of Iraq’s WMD’s. From March 30th, 2003:

STEPHANOPOULOS: And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction?

SEC. RUMSFELD: …We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

Oh, who was the America-hater who dare question our government as they tried to throw him out of the room? 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern.

Here's the transcript of an interview he did with CNN hours after the "incident."