Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has canceled his office  subscription to The New York Times after an online blog item by columnist Paul Krugman described the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks as “an occasion for shame.”   

Earlier today, Rumsfeld tweeted, “After reading Krugman’s repugnant piece on 9/11, I canceled my subscription to the New York Times this AM.”

 Rumsfeld’s Chief of Staff Keith Urbahn confirmed to ABC News that the tweet had come from Rumsfeld’s Twitter account.  He says  Rumsfeld normally tweets himself, but Rumsfeld had Urbahn had  discussed Rumfeld’s decision beforehand and decided it should be tweeted out.

 Urbahn says Rumsfeld canceled his personal subscription to the Times years ago, but after reading Krugman’s column this weekend,  decided “We would no longer have an office subscription, so he canceled it.”

 Krugman’s short blog post titled “The Years of Shame” appeared Sunday — on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks –on NewYorkTimes.com, decrying how 9/11 had become a “wedge issue.”

 Krugman wrote, “What happened after 9/11 –  and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful.”  He continued, “the memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.

 ”The atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue,” Krugman  continued. “Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani  and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.”

  Urbahn said Rumsfeld described Krugman’s column  ”as being beyond the pale.”

 Asked how his office would do without a subscription to the paper of record, Urbahn said, “I think we’re going to do just fine.  We’re not going to be missing much.”