Imagine the indigestion that Rush Limbaugh's listeners experienced when they learned that former president Bill Clinton had pronounced the words "Rumsfeld's right." Many in Republican circles would rather be accused of membership in a Satanic cult than win praise from the 42nd president of the United States. ...

What's odd about Clinton's making nice to Rumsfeld is that there is nothing odd about it at all. Although you'd never know it from Republican campaign rhetoric -- "What the Clinton-Gore administration has done is shortchange the military," Dick Cheney declared in 2000 -- many of the systems that were so successful in the recent Iraq war were put in the pipeline or first purchased under Democratic presidents.

A memo that former Clinton hands are quietly circulating points out that the F-117 stealth fighter and the B-2 bomber programs were developed in the era of President Jimmy Carter. The Longbow Hellfire missile was tested and procured under Clinton. The Tomahawk Land Attack missile was a Carter-era program that the Clinton administration modernized and expanded.

"The Bush administration made no significant changes in arms, force structure or personnel before taking to war in the Gulf the Army a Democratic president provided," the memo concludes.

Now, the truth about weapons development is that many programs one administration takes credit for were often conceived in a previous administration. Ronald Reagan, for example, was sympathetic to the development of stealth technology.

But that's the point about weapons procurement. Drawing a sharp line between the Clinton years and the Republican years, before and after, is simply not true to the story. Yes, Clinton cut military spending more deeply than many Republicans wished. But many of Clinton's cuts were subsequently blessed by Rumsfeld. As this President Bush's defense secretary, Rumsfeld kept the Clinton force structure largely intact. No wonder Clinton likes Rummy.

These facts pose problems for Republicans, but also for Democrats. Republicans make a good part of their living demonizing Clinton, so they can't concede any of this.