Rumsfeld's perceived arrogance is not arrogance but mistrust and dislike. These same folks betrayed him when they dealt behind his backs with Joint Chiefs to preserve the pork in wasteful defense spending.

Why should Rumsfeld kiss their behinds when he serves the President and has this background episode going in?

The politics of war are something clearly Rumsfeld has fought around. He has contracted out non-defense employees to come up with war plans and not relied entirely upon Franks and his competent, yet old-fashioned, war approach.

One of the great untold stories of this administration is how hard it fights to buck the conventional powers-that-be (Yes, I hear Lindy and Bowser laughing it up at this line).

However, the truth is, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell know the pitfalls of the defense infrastructure and its cronyism and pork. This Cabinet has more real-world experience behind it than any cabinet in over fifty years!

As such, Congress has been thrown into the back seat - where it belongs when dealing with matters of National Security, which is constitutionally the President's domain.

Congressfolks also blather and blab - they can't help themselves! Every piece of info is used by them to secure more power by encouraging a lobbying force to support them. The more "inside" the info - the more likely they can convince some interests to support them since they are in on the "top-level decision making." Their staffers and such have often never had a security review or clearance and so congress is one of the weakest links in our national security infrastructure.

Telling ANY congressperson - you might as well take out a full page ad in the NY Times - since that's where it will end up anyway! This is clearly Rumsfeld's take on the matter - and if one would talk to him for any length - I'm sure this is the sanitized "salt-free" version of what he might say about Congress.

;-)

SDAI-Tech1