The Tillman Hearing: Rumsfeld Under Fire

We’re listening to Connecticut GOP congressman Chris Shays actually congratulate Don Rumsfeld for “calling the bluff” of “critics” by appearing at today’s hearing on the Pat Tillman coverup. Shays makes Rumsfeld’s behavior sound like a profile in courage.

Tune it in yourself.

Now Dennis Kucinich is grilling the hell out of Rumsfeld. Too bad he has only five minutes.

Rumsfeld tells Kucinich: “I have not been involved in any coverup whatsover.”

Kucinich replies: “Well, thank you for acquitting yourself. But we were talking about the Department of Defense.”

You know, the department that Rumsfeld was running?

Even under friendly fire just before Kucinich stepped in for Rumsfeld’s five minutes of hell, Rumsfeld said he never had a discussion with anyone in the White House about “press strategies” regarding Tillman’s death and the spin the regime put on it.

Well, what about Rumsfeld’s aides and George W. Bush‘s aides? They were all talking about it via e-mail — see the incontrovertible proof in this four-page PDF made available by House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman.

It shows that Rumsfeld’s speechwriter Heddie Henderson and Bush speechwriter John Currin were in close touch with the same Army flack in April 2004 to nail down details of how they were going to handle the Tillman references. This was just before Bush’s speech at a reporters dinner.

At the time, the Pentagon knew that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire. They were keeping it from Tillman’s family so the regime could continue to score p.r. points by portraying Tillman as a hero killed by enemy fire.

Rumsfeld is trying to say that all this stuff took place so far under him that he didn’t know. Yeah. Like his speechwriter is so far, far under him.