Posted on 12/29/2001 6:30:47 AM PST by veronica
He's vigorous. He's direct. At nearly 70, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is TV's newest stud.
Forget The Guardian's Simon Baker, Smallville's Tom Welling, or 24's Kiefer Sutherland. The sexiest man on television is a grandpop with a throaty laugh and a confidence so overpowering it's made entire countries go weak in the knees.
No doubt about it, Donald Rumsfeld is a stud muffin.
Oh sure, he's a bespectacled government bureaucrat pushing 70. But the secretary of defense has a quality that many women adore.
He's as self-assured as a bull in a cow pasture.
Next to this ex-Navy flyboy and self-made millionaire, humorless careerists are but empty suits, doubt-ridden heroes are boring, and sensitive New Age males look like big whiny babies.
Rumsfeld, in contrast, looks like a good time. In a recent interview, Larry King asked, "Secretary Rumsfeld . . . do you like this image? You now have this new image called sex symbol."
Rumsfeld laughed heartily and replied, "Oh, come on." But he seemed delighted, and later allowed that he could be a sex symbol "for the AARP."
He's direct, plainspoken, full of that quality John F. Kennedy so admired: vigor.
He enjoys sparring with reporters at news conferences. Exuding bonhomie, he gets his points across while revealing very little of what everybody is there to find out. These performances are among the best on television, depicted by political cartoonist Mike Peters as "Must See TV."
Rumsfeld is decisive, a quality Saturday Night Live recognized in a recent skit: The President is in a meeting, taking a call from boring Al Gore, who drones on and on while Bush's advisers point impatiently to their watches and Bush, a prisoner of his breeding, seeks a polite end to the conversation.
Rumsfeld strides in. Grasping the situation immediately, he grabs the receiver and barks, "Get off the phone, Al. Now!" A startled Gore hangs up.
Talk about a man of action.
In the Navy, Rumsfeld was a champion wrestler. Now, he hunts elk.
He's been around Washington forever - this is his second go-round as defense secretary - but it took a war to make him a celeb.
After attending Princeton University on a scholarship, he married his childhood sweetheart, Joyce, in 1954, served in the Navy, and did six years in Congress and four in the Nixon administration.
He was ambassador to NATO when President Gerald R. Ford called him back and made him the youngest defense secretary in the country's history. He wasn't well-liked. Over the years, he has annoyed people by ignoring criticism and pushing to get things done. He used to be called imperious. Now he's seen as determined.
He's also telegenic, which became apparent when the spotlight found him in September. The camera loves him. He's the media star of the war on terror.
He has reappeared on the scene at a time when popular culture is again embracing big-shouldered, go-for-it guys, from stoic Russell Crowe in the Oscar-winning Gladiator to bully Teddy Roosevelt in the best-selling Theodore Rex, to buff Will Smith as The Greatest in Ali.
Classical Roman virtues such as courage and determination, so passe in the high-flying '90s, are again in vogue.
Steely confidence is admired, in burly firemen, guys who attack armed hijackers with their bare hands, 19-year-olds who parachute into battlefields in the middle of the night - and straight-shooting Rummy, the senior with swagger.
Manly men, every one. It's good to have them back.
Yummy Rummy
No, I can't say that I do.
As I like to say, Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.......the trifecta of men's men, and ladies men.
Or does Rummy make you jealous? Meow! Don't worry. If you ever get that head on straight maybe you too will grow up to be a real man like Rummy.
There is a certain type of woman who automatically equates power with sex. Remember Kissingers famous quote? "Power is the ultimate aphrodesiac"
And remember "Stormin Norman" was voted sexiest man in the universe or something or another right after Desert Storm.
If he drove a cab and wore overalls or worked the drive up window at Burger King none of these people would give him the time of day.
The Democrats have them also, Remember the women who wished they were Monica (and were blunt about it) after the scandal broke?
Thank God; yes it is. I hope this sea-change lasts long enough to push all the incompetent, phony know-it-all, snotty clintonian whiners WAY, WAY back down under their rocks, so far they can't find their way back out.
But Rummy seems to have bewitched the Libs even. And the press. I don't think it's just a matter of power. It's also the humor mixed in.
And the fact that we are winning the war that he is leading does not hurt. In uncertain times we tend to look to people who cannot be ruffled. People who roll up their sleeves - no whining - no second-guessing - and just get the job done.
I checked your source, and, indeed, the Iniquiter used the title Do ya think he's sexy?.
Do you find it complimentary to associate a great leader with common barnyard behavior? Is it inspiring to connect a notable person's achievement and confidence with what passes for instinctive accomplishment at the lowest common denominator of both animals and people? If the answer is "no," then you've been tricked by media again into accepting their assessment as valid. Join the club. Develop keener senses to being set-up.
When a hero steps on stage, we know there are those who cannot stomach the idea of heroism. These types will heap false praise upon your hero's head. This is in order to set the stage to belittle them at a later date. In this instance, that belittling has started already by the nature of the praise. You should be angry, not pleased.
When a stranger (let alone a former enemy) suddenly praises you, it is normal for you to feel uncomfortable. So you smile; say thankyou; then nonchalantly check your back for the target they planted. I view this article both as springing from that level of sophomorics and as containing all the sincerity of Bill Clinton.
To admirers of Rumsfeld, this "gift" should be looked in the mouth and everywhere else you can think of. The pedigree of the sender should receive similar attention.
I used to be a Cheney Chick. But, alas, I had to throw him over for Rummy. Yes, sexy he is!
Amen to that!!!!
Ohhhh!!! I love that!
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