Thread by @ClaraJeffery

I'm going to append this righteously eviscerating account of Rumsfeld the public figure with a gentler account per my dad of the man in retirement...at least compared to Dick Cheney.

This involves Chicken Hawks in retirement on the Eastern Shore, lets go.

https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/1410453799202820099

So Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld both had homes ~St. Michaels MD, which is about 2 hrs away from DC, and where my Dad also lived. (Paul Wolfowitz, also nearby. And David Bradley! But anyway.)

Rumsfeld vs Cheney as public figures, I defer to Packer and others.

Rumsfeld vs Cheney as private neighbors? No fucking contest. Cheney was seen as a total monster, Rumsfeld as an ok guy. (To be clear, my dad reviled both their politics.)

Rumsfeld and his wife would introduce themselves gracefully around town, offer lemonade, ya know. Cheney's motorcade, on more than one occasion, nearly ran people down.

Cheney had his place down the creek-->Choptank wiped from Google and etc. Put up a guardhouse at their dock (nevermind it was a straight stinger shot from two miles out). Sped through small towns. Treated people like shit.

Rumsfeld was more like the guy where you said "wow, while I know he's a geopolitical monster, he's very nice?"

But then there was the issue of the floating dock.

Rumsfeld had a floating swim dock. Or maybe it was the neighbors? Anyway, somehow it cut loose and tl; dr there was a security panic of it coming ashore on his property.

But he evidently laughed about it. Wish my dad was still around to set me straight on the deets.

I do remember debating whether it was better for a person who did terrible public things to privately present as kind. Or whether it was easier to have private acts sync with public persona, a la Cheney.

One of the great questions of celebrity, political or otherwise.

Hmm. Going to have to watch this segment and go in to Talbot County historical records. Frederick Douglas indeed was raised/enslaved inn the county, but I don't think Rumsfeld's house was the literal place. (perhaps on part of the former plantation but)

https://twitter.com/abbyinsm/status/1410467564132524033

Having watched segment, confused b/c the photos w/in it don't align, nor are place where I was told he lived (maybe later?).

Regardless, the Eastern Shore had more lynchings than any place outside of Mississippi. And finally, finally!, celebrating Douglas in earnest.