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THE WHIT E HOUSE Office of THE VICE PRESIDENT Internal Transcript December 6, 2001 INTERVIEW OF THE VICE PRESIDENT BY KEN WALSH, U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT 11:33 A. M. EST Q We're doing a cover sto ry this week on Defense • Sec ret ary Rum sfeld. And I j ust want ed to chat with you a bit. THE VICE PRESIDENT: The babe magnet. (Laughter.) Q That's right. (Laughter.) THE VICE PRESIDENT: For the 70-year-old crowd. Q Well, on e thing we wanted to talk about a little bit is what Secretary Rumsfeld brings to the table, as far I as the President is concerned; what he offers that th e President doesn't get elsewhere, from othe r people in his Cabinet, an d other people wh o advise him. Is it his experie nces that are so extensive at Defense, th e White House and private business? Are there other things? How sympatico are they, that sort of thing. THE VICE PRESIDENT: It' s. a number, f things. Obviously, his exp eri enc e coun ts for a lot. I mean, this is a guy who is, y ou know , involved in thes e kinds of decisions going back to the Nixon-Ford days, in the early '70s, Secretary of D efense 25 y ears ago. I guess it's that long ago. But, also, somebody -- the experience is invaluable. When you get into one of these kind of situations we're in now, wh ere you're actually using military force an d you've got people in combat and so forth, it helps a great deal to have an experienced cr ew , and D on is a ke y part of that, because he's been the re before. Second, he's - - I 'm trying t o think how to sa y this. It's his sort of "no BS " attitude. He is, in private, jus t as straightforward and aggressive as he is in public. So you get into a policy debate or discussion, if he sees " \g he doesn't think makes sense, he'll immediately } 000151
