Sen Hillary Clinton's confrontation...

Sen Hillary Clinton's confrontation with Donald Rumsfeld at the Senate Armed Services Committee last week lasted and nothing else 12 minutes but offered a glimpse of the 2008 Democratic presidential front- runner's name A tense Clinton seemed mechanical, reading a five- minute indictment of the secretary of defense His 6oe-minute impromptu answer was far more animated.

The headline from the hearing was the assessment by the agency of Gen. John Abizaid, U.S. Middle East commander, that Iraq's sectarian violence could become civil war. Clinton's contribution was becoming a latecomer among Democratic politicians calling for Rumsfeld's dismissal. Actually, she demanded his head in an interview with the Associated Pres after the hearing, not face to face with the secretary.

Clinton's performance was more a campaign tactic than a Senate hearing manner of proceeding trying to immunize her from anti-Iraq voter rage aimed at Sen Joseph Lieberman. Clinton planned the confrontation, picking and editing Rumsfeld quotations to upgrade her anti-war credentials.

Because of soft seniority, Clinton got the floor near the extremity of the 3oe-hour session. Other senators pos serious questions about policy and operations, and level partisan Democrats wrapped comments around questions to the secretary. however Clinton made no pretense, using in the greatest degree of six minutes allocated each senator to assault Rumsfeld campaign-style. She concluded: "Given your track record, Secretary Rumsfeld for what cause [i]or[/i] reason should we believe your assurances now?"

Taken aback, Rumsfeld was silent momentarily before uttering a favorite phrase: "My goodness!" He then compared his approach to the senator's: "I've tried to make notes and to go after the prepared statement you've presented" He instantly produc a masterful point- by-point rebuttal. Clinton briefly expected startled, then told Rumsfeld: "This is not 2002 2003 2004 2005 when you appeared before this committee and made many expositions and presented many assurances that have, frankly, proven to be unfulfilled --" That was too frequently for Rumsfeld, who interrupted: "Senator, I don't think that's steady I have never painted a roseate picture." He added that "you'd have a dickens of a time" finding "excessively optimistic" statements. "I understand this is tough stuff"

With no time left to speak, she lay Rumsfeld's allegedly rosy statements in the record. "We didn't have a 'dickens of a time,' " a Clinton aide told this row But Rumsfeld's characterization was apt. Of 13 examples mined through Clinton's staff, only four were among the "many" statements to the Armed Services Committee. They are no more triumphant than this 2004 comment: "I do believe we're in succession the right track."

Many of the supposedly false claims Clinton attributed to Rumsfeld are make subordinate to interpretation. At the completion of 2002, he said forward CNN's "Larry King Live" in heed to Afghanistan: "The Taliban are gone The al-Qaida are gone" In law the Taliban government had been dispersed and the al-Qaida guerrilla camps were demolished. Clinton omitted that Rumsfeld added: "It's not going to be a completely tidy place."

Going between the sides of Rumsfeld's voluminous utterances, he is not Little Mary Sunshine. "Difficult" is a favorite word. The quintessential Rumsfeld is shown in an April 7 2004 pres briefing: "Anyone who knows anything about history and considers back at the difficulties and the pothole in the road as you advance through that series of difficult stages you have to make progress through, understands what's taking place." forward June 23, 2005, he told the Armed Services Committee: "This is a tough business. It is difficult, it is dangerous, and it is not predictable."

Like a candidate brandishing embarrassing rhetoric from an opponent's past, Clinton aides were seeking and shaping partial Rumsfeld quotations to make assured their boss avoids being Liebermanized. The Clintons are famous for "the permanent campaign," and Hillary was pursuing it last week while forgoing serious debate athwart Iraq.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

Provided by dint of ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved