Where's Rummy?

Better yet, where's Waldo. It's the same answer, of course. Nowhere in particular. And that's the object of the game.

Rumsfeld and Bobo Failed Us on Sept. 11

"Two planes hitting the twin towers did not rise to the level of Rumsfeld's leaving his office and going to the War Room? How can that be?" asked Mindy Kleinberg, one of the widows known as the Jersey Girls, whose efforts helped create and guide the 9/11 commission. The fact that the final report failed to offer an explanation is one of the infuriating holes in an otherwise praiseworthy accounting.

How is it that civilians in a hijacked plane were able to communicate with their loved ones, grasp a totally new kind of enemy and weaponry and act to defend the nation's Capitol, yet the president had "communication problems" on Air Force One and the nation's defense chief didn't know what was going on until the horror was all over?

Great questions, just like "where's Waldo, er, Rummy?"

Immediate thoughts are that Bobo and Rove sent him to an underground NORAD bunker in the Rocky Mountains, especially after this gem with the 9/11 Commission. Asked point-blank by Commissioner Jamie Gorelick what he had done to protect the nation — or even the Pentagon — during the "summer of threat" preceding the attacks, Rumsfeld replied simply that "it was a law enforcement issue." That obfuscation — was the FBI expected to be out on the Beltway with shoulder-launched missiles? — has been accepted at face value by the commission and media.

Meanwhile, Bobo is campaigning with the slogan "Turning the Corner" and flipping colors on the terror alert spectrum like a contestant on the "Price is Right".

The question that comes to mind: If we have turned the corner, why is Bobo still in office?