So is this: Is Rumsfeld Losing His Mojo?

Facing persistent enemy attacks in Iraq, the Defense Secretary now finds himself fighting battles at home

By MICHAEL DUFFY AND DOUGLAS WALLER
Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was having one of his irregular chats with Senators last Wednesday, speaking in the secret, soundproof fourth-floor Capitol chamber used for highly classified conversations, when someone interjected the question that was on everyone's mind. "What troop levels do we expect to have in Iraq a year from now?" asked Senator Bill Frist, the Republican leader. And with that, the Pentagon chief began to tap dance.

His reply, according to a Republican Senator in the room, was a classic Rumsfeldian fugue—complete with interesting hand gestures—mentioning reductions and foreign troops and steady progress. Or, as the G.O.P. Senator described it later, "it was a five-minute, total nonanswer, just unbelievably obtuse." Another Republican Senator put it this way to TIME: "Rumsfeld believes in his own magic."

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