Just Who Appointed Goss in the First Place?

The New York Times has adopted the Bush administration position that the Porter Goss/John Negroponte enmity is what did Goss in. And National Intelligence Director Negroponte has never made a secret of the fact that he didn’t like Goss’s appointment as CIA head. But has everyone forgotten who anointed Goss as a favorite son and made him head of the CIA? On the day he appointed Goss, President Bush said, “He knows the CIA inside and out…he is the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation’s history.” And VP Cheney and House Speaker Dennis Hastert were so hot for Goss that when Goss planned to retire from his term as Florida’s Republican congressman in late 2004 they talked him into staying. Goss had been chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence since 1997. Cheney and Hastert thought he was so wonderful that they arranged for a change in House rules which limited committee service so that Goss could stay on the committee and chair it. Well, stuff happens and things change. And the stuff happening and things that are changing right now is that Goss’s replacement, General Michael Hayden, is no fan of Donald Rumsfeld’s. So, yeah…Negroponte gets to flex his kick-ass muscles and show that the National Intelligence agency trumps the CIA, but that’s hardly the whole story. Goss had brought into the CIA a bunch of cronies who have become pimp-meisters and kings of corruption, which is something of an embarrassment to the GOP. During Goss’ s 18 months as CIA head, a dozen CIA officials resigned, took early retirement or otherwise got the hell out. And even though the idea of a National Intelligence agency which would oversee 15 separate intelligence agencies, was a piss-poor idea from the get-go, still, it is a way to correct a few of the Bush/Cheney/Hastert mistakes. Speaking of which, the Goss flap has engendered a way to get rid of Rumsfeld. And you better believe the White House is going to take advantage of the opportunity forthwith and soonest. But one big question keeps buzzing around my head. If an Operation Clean House is being put in effect, who is behind it? It’s not George W. Bush. He thinks Foggo is one of his happy pills. It’s not Karl Rove because he’s on the Problem Neutralized list. It’s not Cheney, Hastert or Frist because they like a dirty White House. Apparently, the Republicans have decided John McCain will fill out the remainder of George Bush’s term and then become prez-for-real in 2008. Because McCain surely seems to be calling the shots right now.