What McCain wanted is more (possibly innocent) personnel scalped as a means of having Rumsfeld kiss the Royal Senatorial Arse.
Those 2 sentences effectively sum up this entire episode or heat between the two. There's nothing else there. This article was simply fluff.
You considering a job with the Washington Times?
Not if they pay me by the word :-).
In a more serious vein, this is not just McCain: one of the disdvantages of being in the legislature is that you get none of the glory when things go right, but plenty of blame when things go wrong (wasted money, improper procurement, lack of oversight).
Most of all, you lose even more of whatever limelight the Senate gets in comparison to the CINC.
One of the most effective ways to get it back is to scandal monger and attack the sittng administration. In this case, the press is just stroking the already inflamed egos of the Club of the 100 Elected Drunken Wankers and taking advantage of the institutional bias of the Senate to bash Bush.