Bush Names Porter Goss as new CIA Director

Goss ordinarily would be an above average candidate. He has experience in the CIA as a spook, worked in Military Intelligence and has served as chair of the House Intelligence Committee for the past 8 years. Here's what would count against him:

• In an election year, knowing that he was a top candidate to replace Tenet, he engage in public attacks on Senator Kerry. Not wise, if he someday would be working for a President John Kerry
• He was chair of the House committee on intelligence during the nineties when the CIA and his oversight can be questioned
• He is a partisan Republican. In this environment--bad. Sen Jay
  Rockefeller (D-WV) had said months ago that this position should not go to a politician
• He has not had any administrative experience handing a large agency like this.

What he has going for him is his experience and the fact that he really, really wants the job. Anyone who wants that job that badly should get it in my opinion.

As for the President, I think his motives are more sinister. Porter Goss is a Republican from Florida. The President has ceeded the center to Kerry and seeking to win on the margins by stimulating the base. Bush may figure that if the Democrats bite and oppose Goss, he can use that as a rallying cry in Florida and couple the issue with the judges issue--probably good for an extra few hundred votes, especially from Goss' district.

I think the confirmation process would be interesting and I look forward to the Sen Democrats in action. I am wary of Liebermann who is a closet Republican. As of yet, I'm not aware of Kerry's position on Goss, but I think if Kerry's not comfortable with him, then oppose him and let the chips fall where they may. If Kerry is to be President, then he has to have a good relationship with his CIA director. Goss has already muddied the waters and there is no need to put up with him especially if Kerry has some good ideas on who should head the CIA in a Kerry administration.

The difficulty for the Democrats is that if anything does happen b/w now and the election then they can be blamed for opposing Goss. I still don't think that should be a factor. If terrorists strike, it would be because of four years a bungled anti-terrorism policy and not because of a newly minted CIA chief or lack thereof. We have an acting chief and there is presumably no fear that the Agency is falling apart as we speak.

I don't think Goss is a bad candidate, but if he is not who Kerry wants ideally, then the Democrats should oppose this--unless of course, Kerry can replace him anyway when he comes into office (I don't know the story on that).

Update:

Goss was selected by the Bush-Cheney campaign to critique a June 2 national security speech by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Goss called Kerry's nonproliferation proposals "unrealistic and dangerously naive."
Bush advisers told the Washington Post naming a replacement for Tenet would show the president was taking seriously the need for changes in the intelligence community. But several Democrats have noted if Kerry wins the November election, it would be unlikely that he would keep Goss, should he win Senate approval.

Update:
Via Digsby

Goss says CIA leak not worthy of committee action

BY CORY REISS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Porter Goss said Thursday that the uproar over allegations that White House officials purposely identified a covert CIA agent appears largely political and doesn't yet merit an investigation by the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which he chairs. . . "Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I'll have an investigation," Goss said.
He was referring to the infamous blue dress in the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to impeachment proceedings against former President Clinton.