While criticism of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is mounting, including jabs from prominent republicans, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley won’t be among those piling on. Grassley, a republican, says he’s been in Congress some two decades and finds Rumsfeld one of the most responsive Pentagon chiefs. Grassley says he’s served under seven or eight defense secretaries and “Rumsfeld is the first secretary of defense that’s ever cared a hoot about what Chuck Grassley thought about waste, fraud and abuse, even when it was as clear as the nose on your face.” Grassley says he finds Rumsfeld particularly helpful in tracking down and fixing problems, like when tens of millions of taxpayer dollars were being wasted through fraudulent use of Defense Department credit cards. Grassley says he’s pointed out things that were wrong in several instances and Rumsfeld is the first secretary of defense who’s taken immediate action. Recent criticism of Rumsfeld focused on his use of an “autopen,” a machine that signs his name, instead of personally signing letters to families of U.S. soldiers who’ve been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Grassley says members of Congress use autopens all the time and those who criticize Rumsfeld for doing so are “intelectually dishonest.”
