"A Lean, Mean Signing Machine"

Rummy really is a busy guy. He's got reporters to be snarky with and late night scrounging missions for armor. That'll keep you going. Hardly even a timeout to adjust your glasses and sneer.

What he doesn't have time for is to personally sign what must be the most heartbreaking letter a loved one will ever get; the letter of condolence which arrives after your son or daughter has died in battle. Nope. Rummy thought a machine would be do it better. And who knows, maybe he's right. Maybe a machine has more heart and soul than the "embattled" Defense Secretary.

This is one of those issues that, if the tables were turned, we'd hear all manner of wailing and keening from the Right. They'd tell us how unfeeling and impersonal the Secretary was, how his liberalism had left him bereft of the values that most American's hold so dear and how it was this kind of person who should not be an imporant part of any administration. But we don't hear that, do we?

So now, the only signature that we can hope for, is the one that will appear on the Mr. Rumsfeld's letter of resignation.