A Face the Nation interview to make your day (from atrios, of course):

SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just ask you this. If they did not have these weapons of mass destruction, though, granted all of that is true, why then did they pose an immediate threat to us, to this country?

Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, you're the--you and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase `immediate threat.' I didn't. The president didn't. And it's become kind of folklore that that's--that's what's happened. The president went...

SCHIEFFER: You're saying that nobody in the administration said that.

Sec. RUMSFELD: I--I can't speak for nobody--everybody in the administration and say nobody said that.

SCHIEFFER: Vice president didn't say that? The...

Sec. RUMSFELD: Not--if--if you have any citations, I'd like to see 'em.

Mr. FRIEDMAN: We have one here. It says `some have argued that the nu'--this is you speaking--`that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain.'

Sec. RUMSFELD: And--and...

Mr. FRIEDMAN: It was close to imminent.

Sec. RUMSFELD: Well, I've--I've tried to be precise, and I've tried to be accurate. I'm s--suppose I've...

Mr. FRIEDMAN: `No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world and the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.'

Sec. RUMSFELD: Mm-hmm. It--my view of--of the situation was that he--he had--we--we believe, the best intelligence that we had and other countries had and that--that we believed and we still do not know--we will know. David Kay said we're about 85 percent there. I don't know if that's the right percentage. But the Iraqi Survey Group--we've got 1,200 people out there looking. It's a country the size of California. He could have hidden his--enough chemical or biol--enough biological weapons in the hole that--that we found Saddam Hussein in to kill tens of thousands of people. So--so it's not as though we have certainty today. But what--think what happened. There were 17 UN resolutions. There was unanimous agreement that he had filed a fraudulent declaration. The final opportunity was given with the last resolution, and he didn't take it. He chose war. He didn't do what Kazakhstan did. He didn't do what South Africa did. He didn't do what Ukraine did. He--he didn't say, `Come in and look and see what we have.' He was engaged in active deception. We'll ultimately know a great deal about what took place.


I'm sorry, "he didn't say, 'Come in and look and see what we have.''??? I thought we were the ones who pulled weapons inspectors out of Iraq after Saddam allowed them into the country. Then again, I suppose I'm not up on my revisionist history the way Rummy is. But it does brighten my day to think of him twisting in the wind, confusing which lies he's supposed to be spouting this week. Seriously, it's worth downloading the entire transcript from here to read him attempt to explain what's being called the "backdoor draft policy" by the Military Officers Association of America. And my absolute favorite part comes at the very end:

SCHIEFFER: Finally today, I call your attention to the words of 18-year-old Emily Nemeyer of Tampa, Florida. She recently won a contest sponsored by a student group called Freedom's Answer, in which teen-agers were asked to complete the sentence, `If I were president.' Her answer was published in today's Parade magazine, and here is what she wrote.
`If I were president, I would remember what it was like to live with two hardworking parents barely eking out a living day by day. I would remember that there are always two, maybe even seven, sides to an argument. I would remember in times of war to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to ponder if it is truly worth the price to inscribe that many names on a wall once more. I would remember what it's like to stand on a beach, staring at the ocean and feeling completely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I would remember how it felt to watch the second tower collapse live on television. I would remember and swell with pride at being an American.'


I just might have to send that to President Bush. We might all be a little better off if he remembered such things.