Weird Words of the Week: Rumsfeld, Ripe for Brookings?

December 6th, 2006 10:42 AM

Now that CBS's Early Show is letting Rene Syler go, maybe they could let their liberal foreign-policy omnipresence, Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, anchor a few segments. Mike Rule caught this weird passage on Monday's show, when Harry Smith asked if other Bushies "get it" on Iraq like Rumsfeld's outgoing memo did:

"I don't think so. Rumsfeld has always intrigued many of us on the outside watching him because he's not only a decisive government executive, he's also an analyst and a very good analyst. We'd love to have him at Brookings, I'm sure, when he steps down. He's a smart guy who comes up with powerful new ideas and recognizes reality. I think he made huge mistakes in the early part of the Iraq war, but I think, he, himself is as good as anyone at recognizing how badly things are going. And I think he has a little bit better ability to do that, perhaps, than some people in the White House."

Will this be the new trend once Rumsfeld steps down?