Many people in the press and in Congress never learned to ask a coherent question. Congressional hearings, with 5 minutes per side, are silly. Each congressman/senator gives a 2-minute speach, followed by a 1-minute unintelligible question. Then the witness gives a 3-minute non-responsive answer. By then, the red light is on, so they go on to the next questioner. It is a silly exercise.

But Ted Kennedy's inability to ask a good question does not excuse Rumsfeld's foolish arrogance. One example of what I mean comes from his appearance on one of the Sunday morning shows earlier this year. One of the hosts said that before we invaded Iraq the administration portrayed Saddam as an imminent or immediate threat (I forget which of those two words were used). Rumsfeld stopped him and said in his dismissive way that he never said any such thing and that he did not know how that accuastion became part of the "folk lore" (his words). Unfortunately for Mr. Smug, they had video tape of Rumsfeld using the precise word that he just denied using. Maybe he forgot using that word, but a more likely explanation is that he thought he could make his host look foolish for buying into all that silly "folk lore".

Another way Rumsfeld's arrogance comes through is his use of clever half truths to mislead. There are many examples. One that comes to mind was his pre-war statement that al Qaida was operating in Iraq. That statement is true in the sense that al Qaida had people operating in northern Iraq. The statement was misleading, however, because Saddam had no control over that part of Iraq.