[Rick Lee]

I was at Rumsfeld's Nat. Press Club luncheon yesterday when he was asked about this. An audience member asked whether Rumsfeld thought it appropriate for the Joint Chiefs to write a letter to the Wash. Post about this. (The letter was printed yesterday or the day before and signed by all five of them.) Of course, after the luncheon I saw it on CNN, which conveniently left out the first part of Rumsfeld's answer.

First part of his answer was "You're not suggesting we restrict the Joint Chiefs' freedom of speech, are you?" The whole room laughed. CNN cut to the latter part of his answer where he talked about vicious cartoons about Roosevelt, Lincoln, LBJ, etc.