May 8, 2006

And the Nominee Is... Michael Hayden!

Hatched by Dafydd

We now have word from a fairly reliable source that Hayden is, indeed, the nominee.

The source? Stephen Hadley... President Bush's National Security Advisor:

Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden will be named as the next chief of the CIA, President Bush's national security adviser said Monday, and the White House began battling back against criticism that a military officer would lead the civilian spy agency.

"Mike Hayden is the president's nominee to be the director of the CIA," national security adviser Stephen Hadley said on NBC's "Today" show. "The president believes he is the right person at the right time in the right job, when the Senate confirms him, and we certainly hope it will and will do so promptly."

The White House confirms Hadley's annoucement:

White House counselor Dan Bartlett said it was not unprecedented for a military officer to run the CIA and that Hayden would be the fifth CIA chief in uniform. "He has been viewed as a non-comformist and an independent thinker," Bartlett said.

"This is really nothing new ... so there's precedent for it," Hadley said on CBS's "The Early Show.""We don't see any reason to break the precedent. ... The question is not military versus civilian. The question is the best person to do the job."

...And Big Lizards notes with wry amusement that AP still thinks Saxby Chambliss is a representative, not a senator. At least we corrected our media-induced error just a few hours after making it.

So for all those who bought the line -- such as P*tt*rc* and C*pt**n *d -- that Hayden is great but just too radioactive to be nominated, either due to his running the NSA al-Qaeda intercept program or because he's an active-duty Air Force general... hey, have some faith in the guy in the White House. This is his signature issue, and he rarely wrong-foots himself on national security. (Not "never" but certainly "hardly ever.")

Let the games begin....

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, May 8, 2006, at the time of 5:24 AM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: RonC

Well - I'm preparee for a real dog-fight in the coming confirmation... I'm betting it'll get downright nasty (perhaps to some effect for the lefties - and perhaps enough to make them look the fools they have looked lately...)

The question to me isn't whether he gets confirmed - I believe he will - it is whether he can clean up the mess that the CIA decidedly still is, and I expect it to be for some time to come.

The above hissed in response by: RonC [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 8, 2006 5:54 AM

The following hissed in response by: chsw

Hayden also has intel experience during the Clinton Administration. Congressional Jackasses should be careful about the questions they ask. Hayden's answers might refer back to the way things were done under Clinton vs. Bush2, including "domestic spying."

chsw

The above hissed in response by: chsw [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 8, 2006 2:25 PM

The following hissed in response by: Bill Faith

I linked from Food fight! I'm looking forward to it. Lots of opportunities for the Dhimmicrats and RINOs to show the public how much they care about national security. The CIA's broken and putting a military man at the top could be just what it takes to fix it.

The above hissed in response by: Bill Faith [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 8, 2006 3:48 PM

The following hissed in response by: Bill Faith

I'm surprised enough to be almost suspicious about the lack of antagonism in the NYT article here. Have their inside contacts told them the Dems know better than to put up the sort of fight we were hoping they would?

The above hissed in response by: Bill Faith [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 9, 2006 1:09 AM

The following hissed in response by: MTF

If you read those making arguments against the NSA terrorist intercept program (there! You know where I come down on it), people like Geoffrey Stone and the editorial boards of the NYT and the Post, you begin to wonder if even they think they have even a prayer of winning the argument.

After all, none of them were ever against Echelon, a much much bigger problem for civil libertarians, and they aren't really able to muster a coherent argument against this program either. I think they're pushing this issue so hard because they believe it's a good political issue for painting Bush as some sort of arch anti-American. Stone et al are like the sheep who bleat "four legs good, two legs bad" whenever anyone tries to start to talking sense in Animal Farm.

The above hissed in response by: MTF [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 9, 2006 6:00 AM

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