Ooops...will they lose their heads?

Legislation to reshape the intelligence community collapsed yesterday as conservative House Republicans refused to embrace a compromise because they said it could reduce military control over battlefield intelligence and failed to crack down on illegal immigrants.

The impasse was a blow to President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and others who personally had asked House conservatives to accept the measure proposed by House-Senate negotiators.

It also marked a major setback to the Sept. 11 commission — whose July report triggered a drive toward overhauling intelligence operations — and to many relatives of Sept. 11 victims.

The bill would have created a director of national intelligence and a counterterrorism center, along with scores of other changes. The bill would have given the new intelligence chief authority to set priorities for the CIA and 14 other spy agencies.

[...]

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the chief Senate GOP negotiator, said she was disappointed that Bush's support of the compromise — which he expressed via White House statements and telephone calls to a few House Republicans — wasn't enough to obtain its passage. "It's surprising," she said...

Seattle Times article

Yes, that is surprising. Don't they understand the will of the people?

Hunter said he opposed the bill because Senate conferees had removed a White House-drafted section ensuring that tactical or battlefield-intelligence agencies still would be directed primarily by the secretary of defense, even as they reported to the new national intelligence director.

I'm not sure I understand that....he wants the intelligence agencies that are under the NID to be directed by Rumsfiend? Hmmmmmm.

Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., a House conferee on the legislation, said: "Clearly, House Republicans never really wanted this bill. ... Sadly, there are those who are so wedded to the Department of Defense that they ultimately ensured the bill's demise."

And I understand Miss Thang has had her run-ins with Rums as well. Could Derr Rumsfiend be on his way to the trash heap of non-aligned, or not ultra-loyal, subjects?

P.S. I see they are calling the position "Director of National Intelligence," presumably because NID sounds a lot like what it probably will actually be. But I'm still going to call him the NID.