and bloggers are accused of logorrhea?
[Former Sec’y of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld, whose sometimes abrasive approach often alienated other Cabinet members and White House staff members, produced 20 to 60 snowflakes a day and regularly poured out his thoughts in writing as the basis for developing policy, aides said. The memos are not classified but are marked “for official use only.” [From From the Desk of Donald Rumsfeld . . . – washingtonpost.com]
The amount of time spent on these little droppings, to say nothing of the interruptions to possible Real Work he might have been doing, must have been a large part of his day, even if he dictated them. On a 10 hour workday, 20 means generating one every 30 minutes: 60 means doing it every 10. And a shorter workday or time spent in circumstances that prohibit generating them means a tighter interval.
But read deeper into it and you realize that, rather than trying to remake the military or win a war, he’s obsessed with burnishing his reputation with words, not deeds. Rather than do the job and let the facts stand on their own, he’s constantly responding to OpEds. He complains about being “on defense” when any axiom addict would say that “the best defense is a good offense.”
Pathetic. The whole crowd of them seem more concerned with how history will see them than with what they can accomplish today. How have today’s meetings and phone calls and emails and speeches advanced the national agenda?
Carpetbagger has more.