{"id":7344,"date":"2006-05-08T09:39:55","date_gmt":"2006-05-08T13:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7344"},"modified":"2006-05-08T09:39:55","modified_gmt":"2006-05-08T13:39:55","slug":"the-wrong-person-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-wrong-person-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The wrong person, the wrong place, at the wrong time’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let’s see, who believes it’s a bad idea for Air Force Gen. [tag]Michael Hayden[\/tag] to replace [tag]Porter Goss[\/tag] as the [tag]CIA[\/tag] director? Well, there are congressional [tag]Republicans[\/tag]<\/a>…<\/p>\n

“I do believe he is the wrong person, the wrong place, at the wrong time,” Representative [tag]Peter Hoekstra[\/tag], 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. [tag]Hoekstra[\/tag] said. […]<\/p>\n

Senator [tag]Saxby Chambliss[\/tag], a Georgia Republican and White House ally, said that even if General Hayden were to resign his military commission, he would still face problems being accepted at the spy agency. “Just resigning commission and moving on, putting on a pin-striped suit versus an Air Force uniform, I don’t think makes much difference,” Mr. Chambliss said on “This Week” on ABC.<\/p>\n

Senator [Pat] [tag]Roberts[\/tag], of Kansas, praised General Hayden’s background but acknowledged that there is “real concern” about a military officer leading the agency. “I’m not in a position to say that I am for General Hayden and will vote for him,” Mr. Roberts said on “Late Edition” on CNN.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…congressional [tag]Democrats[\/tag]<\/a>…<\/p>\n

House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy [tag]Pelosi[\/tag], D-California, said the questions surrounding the wiretapping program will “make it difficult for him to be the head of the CIA.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and CIA officials<\/a> themselves.<\/p>\n

These intelligence officials also said Gen. Hayden’s nomination would deprive the CIA of a leader with extensive experience in the discipline it needs most: intelligence collected by humans, not machines. They say the general has experience running spy satellites and phone taps, but little knowledge of running on-the-ground spies that have been the CIA’s bread and butter.<\/p>\n

“The agency is really about one thing: human-source espionage, the collection of intelligence from human sources,” said a recently retired station chief in the CIA’s clandestine service. “This is something Michael Hayden never has done.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is, of course, just the way the White House likes it<\/a>.
\n<\/p>\n

Rather than steer away from a Hayden nomination because of the controversy, the White House seems ready for a new fight over it, convinced that it has public support and that Democrats opposing Hayden’s confirmation would risk looking [tag]weak on terrorism[\/tag]. Democrats yesterday began formulating a strategy built around grilling Hayden during hearings and then determining whether any refusal to answer questions provides enough justification to oppose his confirmation.<\/p>\n

“By nominating him, they are looking for a confrontation and forcing the Congress to take sides, so I am troubled by this,” said Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, who has a close relationship with Hayden and considers him “very professional and dedicated.”<\/p>\n

A senior White House official said Bush did not choose Hayden to pick a fight but would welcome one if it came. “We felt that we’re in a position on offense,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the nomination has not been announced.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s reassuring to know that so little has changed at the White House. Given the need to pick a new director of the CIA, the Bush gang is, as usual, concerned about the politics and staying “on offense.” Whether Hayden would actually make a good choice for the job seems to be relatively low<\/a> on the list of priorities.<\/p>\n

Regardless, is the White House strategy likely to work? I’m skeptical. Dems aren’t terribly afraid of Bush’s “soft on terror” smears when the president has a 32% approval rating, and Republicans, as of yesterday, seemed to genuinely concerned about Hayden’s qualifications and background.<\/p>\n

The Bush gang is still playing by a 2002-2004 playbook. They might consider a different approach, but apparently, their playbook only has one page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s see, who believes it’s a bad idea for Air Force Gen. [tag]Michael Hayden[\/tag] to replace [tag]Porter Goss[\/tag] as the [tag]CIA[\/tag] director? Well, there are congressional [tag]Republicans[\/tag]… “I do believe he is the wrong person, the wrong place, at the wrong time,” Representative [tag]Peter Hoekstra[\/tag], a Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}