I hear you're working for the CIA/They would not have you in the Maf-I-A

So the discord continues in the spook shop, as Porter Goss departs after less than two years at the helm in Langley. President Bush appears to have chosen a military intelligence man, General Hayden, to take over the CIA. So what does this all mean?

Who knows? It sure seems, from this safe distance, that the spooks are completely dysfunctional. Goss struggled mightily against the entrenched bureaucracy at CIA headquarters, watching nearly helplessly as politicized agents leaked damaging information to the press, in most cases designed to damage the administration. There's plenty of reason to believe that the CIA, as it's currently constituted, may be beyond reform. I can't think of anything worse than an intelligence operatives with civil service protections and a civil service mentality, who are more interested in sticking knives in the back of the president than they are with fighting the bad guys. And while it has been highly enjoyable for the Democrats to watch this spectacle and to add the tympani to the orchestrated outrage, they ought to remember that the evil Bush has been putting his boys and girls in sinecures at Langley for the better part of six years now. It would be easy to imagine a few self-styled right-wing "patriots" who wouldn't think twice of skewering a President Hillary or President Gore. Of course these "patriots" would be "traitors," not "whistleblowers," but the damage would be the same. It's a dangerous game.

Probably the only good thing to come of this is that Hayden will go through a very contentious confirmation hearing, which will allow the Democrats to prattle and preen about their concerns over the NSA spying "scandal," which Hayden oversaw. I think a more fleshed out discussion of the purposes of this program of "eavesdropping on Americans" would inure to the benefit of the Administration. The gauntlet to throw down - if the Democrats think that the program is so heinous, they should call for its immediate abolition. Have you noticed that they haven't? Why do you suppose that is?

I have a guess - the D's will need to act like adults should they ever gain power. And acting like adults means, among other things, being able to control the behavior of underlings and having the levers necessary to deal with insubordination. They will need something like the NSA program if they ever take power. Will they have it? Again, who knows?