Rumsfeld Not Against Intelligence Reform

Rumsfeld says he hasn't opposed the intelligence reform plan.

I saw Rumsfeld on CNN earlier talking about this. He says he didn't oppose the intelligence reform bill because
a. It wasn't a bill
b. He didn't actually say anything in public against it.

I guess we've gotten used to this sort of "Rumsfeldian" double-speak at this point. I'm not surprised, although it's sort of like telling your parents you didn't break the window because it was actually the baseball you threw that did.

Some people are wondering how Bush can possibly tolerate Rumsfeld opposing intelligence reform, given that Bush himself publicly supported it. This of course ignores that fact that Bush only very recently supported it, in the past week or so it feels like, and that up until then Rumsfeld was working behind the scenes against it(remember, it wasn't a bill yet)with what was certainly Bush's implied consent.

In fact, if you ascribe truly machiavellian motives to this administration, one could make the argument that Rumsfeld dropped his opposition to it just as Bush was touting his support of it, and that Bush decided to support it after it was essentially dead in the water anyway so he could harvest the credit for at least making the effort.

I don't quite see that. I think what's more likely is that Bush decided to support it because politics demanded it, as is usual, and was actually caught off guard when he couldn't even get this limited measure accepted by some House Republicans. Rumsfeld then was supporting this administration...in opposing it, just like the president, until very recently.