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Get Lost, Barbie: Here Comes Rummy

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The Washington Post

Published: November 24, 2007

WASHINGTON - It's holiday shopping time, and you're once again scurrying about looking for something besides the usual earrings, ties, shirts or sweaters.

Why not capitalize on the growing "Rummy nostalgia" phenomenon? After having him for six years as a constant source of hatred, despair or admiration, let's face it, some of you just kinda miss the wacky old secretary of defense.

Got just the thing: It's a 12-inch "Rummy" doll that looks vaguely like him and features bits of his historic news conferences that you can play just by pressing a little button on the back of his coat.

Yes, you can listen to 28 of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's greatest displays of impeccable logic:

•"What they do with themselves is up to them, and what the people around them do with them is up to the people around them."

•"There are known knowns, there are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns, that is to say there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns, there are things we do not know we don't know, and each year we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns."

•"We have a saying in America: If you're in a hole, stop digging. ... I'm not sure I should have said that."

•"I suspect some of these dead-enders will be down there shooting people and doing that type of thing."

Some would make Yogi Berra beam with pride:

•"I would not say that the future is necessarily less predictable than the past. I think the past was not predictable when it started."

•"I believe what I said yesterday. I don't know what I said, but I know what I think, and I assume that's what I said."

Some sticklers may grouse that the comments needed to be placed in context; the questions asked by reporters at the briefings are not included.

These and other wonderful hits - all from his news conferences - are available at TalkingPresidents.com and are on sale now for $19.95.

The Rummy doll is made in China, so you might want to wear gloves when handling.

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