I certainly didn’t expect those stunning TV images of Donald Rumsfeld being questioned on armor shortages by the troops to be the centerpiece of President Bush’s economic summit – but I also didn’t expect our entire political and media culture to skate past this episode without marinating in its lessons. When the biggest military spending hike in history produces shockingly inadequate results on the front line, the massive mismanagement – and GOP hypocrisy – needs to be examined.

Why do I say hypocrisy? Recall that on domestic issues like education, the Republican mantra is that “money is not the answer.” Put aside the fact that in objective terms this is often false. What else do Republicans think poor, uninsured workers should use to buy health coverage, for example? And if money is ruled out, it’s equally unclear what “compassionate” Republicans think poor school districts should use to lure better teachers to tough neighborhoods.

But this threshold fallacy aside, the GOP isn’t off base in saying that it can be crazy to spend more money in an area without reforming the dysfunctional system that administers how the money is spent. Still, you can agree on the need for systemic reform and also believe that money can help bribe the interest groups involved (say, the teachers unions) to get it.

Yet insisting on reform before adding fresh cash in a context like education is a position that’s easy to take when you’re not affected by the wait. “Look, kid,” this approach basically tells poor inner-city and rural students, “I know you’ve got lousy teachers every year, and it’s a disgrace that your building is falling apart, and that you’ve got no libraries or textbooks or computers, but we’ve really got to get the incentives right before we can tackle all that.”

Worse, as Armorgate proves, conservatives refuse to apply their principles consistently. The Bush administration inherited a $300 billion defense budget. After a few short years, it tops $450 billion. Thanks to a few troopers who had the guts to speak up, we now know that these epic boatloads of cash being poured into the Pentagon are not delivering basics on the front line.

Imagine if, instead of Rumsfeld being queried by the troops, the scene the other day had been an urban school superintendent being questioned by a teacher on why big spending increases hadn’t resulted in classrooms having adequate supplies. You can bet Karl Rove and the Swift Boat Veterans for Educational Efficiency would have launched their 30-second ads the next day.

As members of both parties know, Pentagon waste is legendary – and since the fight against terror is going to last for the next hundred years, we can’t say that scrutiny of this mismanagement is off-limits. This is especially true in an era of tight budgets and huge unmet needs (like the 45 million uninsured).

Studies show, for example, that in many functions that could be privatized – like housing, payroll processing, travel and inventory management – the Pentagon wastes up to $30 billion a year compared with more efficient private-sector practices. Why would an administration full of former CEOs throw so much fresh cash into a structure that Donald Rumsfeld would be the first to acknowledge is outdated and inefficient? Even Newt Gingrich called himself a “cheap hawk” and said the Pentagon ought to be downsized until it was no bigger than a triangle.

In the Bush creed, however, real men never admit mistakes. Meanwhile, the Democrats, the press and the watchdog groups have let the country down by failing to hold the White House accountable for results during the most massive military spending spree in history – even when events like Rumsfeld’s news conference suggest that something smells really rotten.

And so the broader Bush logic stands unquestioned. When it comes to providing new cash injections for America’s most troubled schools, the White House says it’s wrong to pour good money after bad; the system must first be reformed. But before Sept. 11 and ever since, Bush and Company have happily thrown vaster pots of money at the unreformed Pentagon without hypocrisy or inconsistency because . . . well, because.

Matt Miller is a syndicated columnist and author. Reach him on the Web at www.mattmilleronline.com.