Richard Clarke on This Week with George Stephanopolous

Richard Clarke had this to say about Bush's response to the 9/11 Commission report:

"I used to co-ordinate $12B in intelligence budget, and 'coordinating' compared to having control of the budget is like kissing your sister. I think Donald Rumsfeld won this battle in the White House, where President Bush says he accepts the reports conclusions, but he doesn't really."

What Clarke is referring to is the fact that Bush has declared that he will not go forward with the commissions recommendation for a National Intelligence Dirctor who is in charge of the full $40B intelligence budget and personell -- now divided between 15 agencies. Why won't Bush do this? Because Donald Rumsfeld is in charge of 80% of that budget, and he has made it clear to Bush that he will not give it up.

In other words, Bush lost a political argument with Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld is calling the intelligence shots, not Bush.