Its simple. Condi painted Ben Veniste into a corner and he attacked without thinking. If the hearing was karate you would have seen her flip him to the ground.
From my memory, he launched on her the existence of the document and wanted her to name it. His plan was to throw her off guard, she would simply state the title and he would move on having successfully skewered her. One small problem, she didn't cooperate. She not only gave him the background on it she flipped him by stating she was surprised he was asking because she believed he himself had seen the document.
To recover and to attempt to keep his adversarial upper hand he demanded release of the document implying that there was damaging information. He went for the short term gain in there tit-a-tat while Condi went for decking him later.
If you didn't know how to watch (which the press doesn't) you would have missed her moves.
Do I remember correctly that among Condi's many accomplishments is experience at Judo, or one of the other Oriental self defense arts? Or did I dream that? She can do just about everything else.
President Bush set the whole thing up (whether intentional or not, isn't my call). He hedged on letting her testify until the public demanded it. As the President, he heard their concerns and responded. Dr. Condolezza Rice walked into that room and did her job to the nth degree. She smiled, complimented and hit them between the eyes. She mentioned the briefing because she was confident that the administration she worked for was right on this issue.
She floored Kerrey with a reminder of his speech and he struck back by demanding the release of the briefing.
Once again our President has listened to the people and has released the briefing in question. When the people talk to President Bush, he listens!!!
Now, move on to media spin.....