Democrats seize on Woodward book

Rice calls one report ‘ridiculous’
And Snow said he had been able to talk with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who denied one of Woodward’s tidbits.

Woodward reported that the split between Rumsfeld and Rice during her days as national security adviser was so deep that Bush had to intervene personally, ordering Rumsfeld to take Rice’s telephone calls. Rumsfeld was described as brushing off Rice because she was not in his “chain of command.”

“Her comments were: ‘This is ridiculous, and I told that to Woodward,’” Snow quoted Rice as saying, adding that “the two of them have been having daily phone conversations throughout this administration.”

Snow quoted Rice as saying: “That’s not the way Don Rumsfeld operates. He’s not a guy who’s going to be copping an attitude about chains of command. He’s somebody who makes his point directly.”

Kissinger downplays his role
One of the more titillating disclosures in the book is that Bush regularly consults with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who Woodward wrote had advised Bush to “stick it out” and reject calls to withdraw U.S. troops.

In an interview Friday with NBC News, Kissinger minimized his influence and expressed wonderment that anyone would be taken aback that the administration talked to former government officials with relevant experience.

Kissinger, one of more than two dozen members of the Pentagon’s civilian Defense Policy Board, told NBC News’ Robert Windrem that he and Bush rarely talked about short-term tactical matters, limiting their conversations to “usually conceptual questions of, where are we going? What is your judgment on this?”

“Why should it be surprising [when] I’m on the board in the Defense Department that deals with Defense Department matters that meets every four months?” Kissinger asked. “Why should that be surprising that the president asks my opinion?”

NBC’s David Gregory, Andrea Mitchell, Lester Kretman, Keith Strickland, Michael Viqueira and Robert Windrem and MSNBC-TV’s Tucker Carlson contributed to this report.

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