Misconstrued And Misunderstood

Poor Don. Being a fuckup is hard work. AP (09.01.06):

"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld reached out to Democrats late Friday, opening up the door for them to retract their stinging indictment of him as Pentagon chief. In a letter to Congress's top Democrats, Rumsfeld said recent remarks he made during a speech in Salt Lake City were misrepresented by the media, including by the Associated Press." Rumsfeld Reaches Out to Democrats

"'I know you agree that with America under attack and U.S. troops in the field, our national debate on this should be constructive,' Rumsfeld wrote Friday." "During his speech before thousands of veterans Tuesday, Rumsfeld said the world faces 'a new type of fascism' and warned against repeating the pre-World War II mistake of appeasement. He alluded to critics of the Bush administration's war policies in terms associated with the failure to stop Nazism in the 1930s, 'a time when a certain amount of cynicism and moral confusion set in among the Western democracies.'" "Aides to Rumsfeld said later he was not accusing the administration's critics of trying to appease the terrorists but was cautioning against a repeat of errors made in earlier eras." In other words, what he said wasn't what he meant, constructively speaking, and quoting exactly what he said is really a misrepresentation.