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.
I admit it, I'm shallow that way...avoiding losers and desiring the powerful.
Yeah, Rummy's hot!
:0)
One terrorist organization at a time. I am patient.
There are alot of reasons to like Donald Rumsfeild..
I was making an observation, not a blanket accusation applied to everyone on this thread.
If the shoe doesn't fit, then by all means don't wear it.
:)
I can't speak for veronica, but I think it's great.
Rummy is tough as nails, doesn't take any crap, has no patience for fools (and reporters, if they aren't one and the same) and is a brilliant strategist.
He can park his shoes under my bed anytime.
Never could understand all the sophisticated media women who thought that Clinton's leering down their blouses made him sexy (maybe he transported them back to their high school years)--he always looked like a big fat stupid lazy dog in heat to me--his voice lived on the border between whining and pleading--I like men who are lean, confident but modest, and direct--Rumsfeld, GW, and Cheney instill confidence because they are secure men who know who they are and what they must achieve.
Yeah, Kissinger mentioned that when he was asked how a fat guy like him got so many beautiful chicks.
But the difference is that we Rumsfeld fans don't want him to do anything that would violate his marriage vows and we enjoy the fact that he seems to be in a long and happy marriage. To many of us, that's more attractive than a high-profile married man who's easily available for nookie.
I think that we feel safe and protected with him, and that's his primary attraction -- that he's a *guy*, not some wimp trying to "feel our pain."
I, for one, get a major kick out of him talking about "killing the enemy," not using weasel-speak like "degrading their war-making capabilities."
He's tough and not afraid of the tough decisions and their consequences. He also knows that the military is here to fight our wars - to kill people and break things, not be permanent "peacekeepers" and global social workers.
In other words, he's just what we need right now -- a throwback to a time when our government wasn't afraid of being a superpower and wasn't trying to apologize for our strength (as Maddy "Mad Bomber" Halfwit did).
Bill Clinton forced all men into the gutter as he made himself, with the media's help, the lowest common denominator. It is refreshing to see people recognize true virtue and honor it. It's just that we are working overtime to pull ourselves out of the gutter Clinton forced us all into, women included.
Exactly, I am a huge fan also.. HUGE.. I love Mr. R for exactly the reasons you outlined above.
I should have kept my mouth shut, because NOW the FReeperetts will take what I said as a blanket statment that applies to all of them. That's not the case and I apologize.
I find alot of powerfull women attractive, also many who you have never heard of and will never see. I just made the observation that power is the sole criteria to a certain type of person, the Clinton "testamonials" that we heard after the scandal were sickening. That was my point more than anything. He used his power to get him laid because he knew a certain percentage of chicks would go for that. Kissinger said the same thing and they were both right.
This is in No Way a blanket accusation.. So, please don't take it as such..
I will now go and try to remove both feet from my mouth.
Regards.
He also seems frank and honest even with a potentially hostile media.....how refreshing. I like all of them but he and Wolfie are my boys. Powell worries me. Condi....I like her writings but can't gauge much on her performance given the nature of her work. Cheney...well anybody who can handle his job with the grim reaper firmly planted on his shoulder all these years has got to have some serious cajones.
Hell yes.....a damn good team for the times!!!....and Rummy is the perfect man for his task. Thank God it just works out that way occasionally. Our president made some excellent choices.
Isn't he baaaaaad!!..LOL
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