Video: Chris Matthews defends Donald Rumsfeld, calling him a "heat shield" on Iraq

Media watchdog groups like Media Matters, NewsHounds and other progressive blogs have pounced on commentator Chris Matthews for his alleged conservative media bias.  From a personal standpoint, after watching Matthews' MSNBC show "Hardball" ever since the election campaign of 2000, I don't find a consistent pattern of deliberate bias from Chris Matthews.  Most notably, he was one of the first mainstream media figures to criticize the rationale for going into Iraq almost an entire year before it happened.  He holds both sides accountable.  And although he thinks that the Democrats have had a weak message on national security issues since late-2001, even I feel the same way to an extent.

In knowing that I do not hold any personal grudges against Chris Matthews, I should let it be known that I disagree with him from time to time.  One of these instances was on the latest edition of the syndicated weekly program "The Chris Matthews Show".  During a brief commentary at the end of the show, he tried to deflect blame away from Secretary Rumsfeld, making the Defense Secretary look like a misled fall-guy:

Click to watch clip >>> (Windows Media Player)

CHRIS MATTHEWS: "But let's pause and ask if this (the criticism of Donald Rumsfeld) is right?  I once asked the Secretary of Defense if he'd ever advised President Bush to invade Iraq."

(Beginning of excerpt of video with Matthews and Rumsfeld)
DONALD RUMSFELD: "He did not ask me, is the question.  And to my knowledge there are any other people he did not ask."

CHRIS MATTHEWS: "Doesn't that surprise you as Secretary of Defense?"

DONALD RUMSFELD: "Well, I thought it was interesting."
(End of except of video with Matthews and Rumsfeld)

CHRIS MATTHEWS: "It was, of course, not Rumsfeld's call; nor would he have been the one out front and center basking in the credit had the war gone as advertised."

There are a few flaws with Matthews' conclusion.  First off, how are we to know that Rumsfeld would not "have been the one out front and center basking in the credit had the war gone as advertised?"  Secondly, Matthews is focusing too heavily on the decision to go to war, and not how the war was fought.  Rumsfeld, as the leader of the Pentagon, had a huge say as to the number of troops that were sent into the war zone.  He and Cheney ignored what many political science academic types like myself refer to as the Powell doctrine: overwhelming force coupled with a clear and realistic exit strategy.  Rumsfeld, instead, advocated a much smaller ground force, unfortunately making it so that we had to decide between protecting Iraq's infrastructure and protecting its oil reserve.  As imagined, we chose to protect the oil reserve -- not the message we needed to send to the Arab world.  That was Rumsfeld's responsibility.

I tend to agree with Matthews that the ultimate burden of responsibility rests on the commander-in-chief.  But at the same time, the commander-in-chief should always expect to have competent people around him that understand war.  Rumsfeld let Bush down.