Rumsfeld to receive statesman award.

The Claremont Institute, a conservative California think tank, has announced that Rumsfeld would receive its “Statemanship” award at a Nov. 17 gala. The WSJ writes, “The award may seem ironic since Rumsfeld prided himself on being a blunt-spoken defense secretary with little time for diplomatic niceties. During his six-year tenure, Rumsfeld famously belittled France and Germany as being part of ‘old Europe’ and said the looting of Baghdad illustrated that ‘freedom is messy.’”