Forget About It!

Retirement has been hard on Donald Rumsfeld.

The former secretary of defense, famous for his attention to detail, returned to testify yesterday about the "friendly fire" death of football star Pat Tillman and an alleged coverup. But Rumsfeld displayed an alarming decline in his mental faculties and couldn't remember a thing about the incident.

"How and when did you learn that Corporal Tillman had been killed?" asked Tom Davis (Va.), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"I don't recall precisely," Rumsfeld replied.

"Do you remember when you learned that this was a possible fratricide?"

"Well, I don't remember," Rumsfeld answered. "What I have been told subsequently is that there was a person in the room when I was who says I was told."

"Did you decide you needed to tell somebody else about this?"

Rumsfeld raised his palms in a shrug. "I don't recall when I was told, and I don't recall who told me."

No fewer than 82 times during the three-hour hearing, Rumsfeld and his former military colleagues were heard to utter "I can't recall," "I don't remember," "I don't know" or a variation of these. So forgetful was Rumsfeld that he repeatedly neglected to turn on his microphone before speaking, requiring frequent reminders from the panel.

Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, who earned a reputation for obedience to Rumsfeld while serving as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, joined his former boss in memory loss with answers such as ""I do not recall this, nor does the secretary recall."

The two men handled the questions about Tillman much as they did the questions about the Iraq war: no mistakes, no regrets, and no blame for what went wrong.

Rumsfeld, tanned and fit, slouched in his chair as he endured the proceedings. He glanced several times at a clock on the wall and was overheard saying he had a lunch at the Mayflower. He made no overt effort to speak with the Tillman family members who sat a few rows behind him; as the room cleared at the end, Rumsfeld came within three feet of the late soldier's father but said only "Can we slip by?"