Watching bureaucrats squirm as they try and cover-up their mishandling of the honorable Army Ranger Pat Tillman's friendly-fire death in Afghanistan is just pathetic. Government officials tried use Tillman's brave story and sad death as war propaganda.

Now that the cover-up has been exposed, giving the Bush administration another anti-soldier scar, all the officials who have been implicated in concocting the fake-Tillman story to the public, and, even more disgusting, to his family, are all trying to pass the blame. At a hearing this morning, ex-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top former Pentagon brass, including General Richard Myers, denied any cover-up and rejected personal responsibility. Instead, they kept passing the buck onto lower ranking soldiers.

Retired Gen. Richard Myers, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he learned of the likelihood of friendly fire toward the end of April but that it wasn't his responsibility to inform the White House or the Tillman family.

"I don't think there's any regulation that would require me to do anything," said Myers. He blamed the Army. "This is the responsibility of the United States Army, not of the office of the chairman, so I regret that the Army did not do their duty here and follow their own policy," Myers said.

The congressional inquiry comes a day after the Army laid most of the blame for the response to Tillman's death on Philip Kensinger, a retired three-star general who led Army special operations forces after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Army censured Kensinger for "a failure of leadership" and accused him of lying to investigators probing the aftermath of Tillman's death. A review panel made up of four-star generals will decide whether Kensinger should have his rank reduced.

The Department of Defense and the Pentagon should be ashamed of themselves.....

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