Rummy the All Powerful –updated–
UPDATE: Looks like my assessment this morning was right on. Via Josh Marshall, the NY Sun is reporting the bottom line: Pentagon Is Winner Over CIA. Here's the money quote: A senior intelligence community official yesterday said the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, has indicated “he is willing to give up covert operations to the Pentagon.”
U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,
said, “This appointment … signals that we are not that concerned about
having an independent intelligence community independent of the Department
of Defense.”
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| Licking his chops over the CIA. |
If you're just joining us, the only link you'll need to figure out all the
players on the CIA shuffle and how they fit together is the one from TPM
Muckraker. Josh Marshall's new site has been all over hookergate from the
start, which is part of all this regardless of the spin out of the White House. Turf wars, maybe, but you can bet having your own people caught up with the Dukester did Goss in. Sex and the randy Republicans is just getting started.
But General Michael Hayden has been tapped, amidst Bush's own party leaders expressing
real reservations. Of course, Deadeye Dick's pet, Senator Roberts from Kansas,
is being his dutiful genuflecting self, though he hasn't completely committed
yet. Nothing like a show of having a thought in your head, rather than actually
having one. The reality is that Hayden is not the best choice, regardless of
his competence in other areas, but Bush doesn't care. He has no problem putting
our entire foreign intelligence operation under the thumb of Rummy, with a little
Negroponte analyzing on the side. After all, what could be better than handing
the CIA over to a guy with no human intelligence experience.
They're killing the CIA one appointment at a time. I'd like to hear Daddy Bush's reaction to the Hayden nomination.
It seems Bush is so weak that Karl, along with others, have made the calculation
that talking about the NSA illegal domestic wiretapping program during Hayden's confirmation
will set the Democrats up to look non-Bush like, meaning Democrats will be seen
as questioning the importance of the now dubbed “terrorist surveillance
program.” You know the drill. Democrats don't want to fight terrorists.
It's the only thing Bush has got left.
There are no domestic issues on which Bush can score. Conservatives are so
turned off by their guy that very little is going to work for him. Bush has
betrayed his base on immigration, so all he can do is try to inspire the people
who might be brought into the fold by using the Republican old standard of “strong
on national security,” Democrats are not, to win back wayward Republicans.
But since Bush and the Republicans in Congress have been outed as being sloganeers
on security instead of actually being strong it's a long shot that isn't likely
to work.
In a possible preview of the difficulties that would await General Hayden
on Capitol Hill, several Republicans, including some with close ties to the
White House, said President Bush should find someone else to run the embattled
agency.“I do believe he is the wrong person, the wrong place, at the wrong
time,” Representative Peter Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican and chairman
of the House Intelligence Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.”“We should not have a military person leading a civilian agency at this
time,” Mr. Hoekstra said.Several military officers have led the C.I.A., but Mr. Hoekstra said it would
be wrong to install one when the agency was fending off efforts by the Pentagon
to expand its own spying operations.
I mean, seriously, selling out national security for sex isn't exactly inspiring.
Hookergate is percolating underneath everything, with the Abramoff scandal having claimed yet another Republican. Senator Bob Ney's former chief of staff just copped
a plea. Not looking good for Mr. Ney, now is it?
However, all eyes are on Hayden coming into the CIA, with the reality that Rummy will be transmitting orders in his head. Maybe we'll actually learn more about Hayden's role in the NSA illegal
domestic spying program, which was his concoction. That is, with the help of
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rummy and our top cop, Alberto Gonzales. But believe
it or not, that's not the worst of it anymore. Instead of having Rummy resign, he's
actually getting more power. It's dangerous and the last thing our country needs.
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