Incompetent

As you know, the right-wing online rag Politico created a dust-up over the allegation that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called General Pace an "incompetent" in a talk with liberal bloggers. Nobody knows how Politico received the story, since the bloggers themselves could not recall Reid having used that language. A transcript was kept. Here's the exact quote:

BLOGGER QUESTION: What's the next step on Gonzales?

REID: Well, I guess the President, he's gotten rid of Pace because he could not get confirmed here in the Senate. Pace is also a yes-man for the President. I told him to his face, I laid it out last time he came in to see me. I told him what an incompetent man I thought he was. But he got rid of his Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, but he still hangs on to this failed Attorney General.

If I had been one of the bloggers involved in this discussion, I might have taken the "incompetent" remark as a reference to Bush, not Pace. (Indefinite pronouns refer to the nearest preceding proper name or title.) Of course, Bush does not "come in to see" Reid.