Subscribe"How low can Bush's approval rating go? My hunch is it's at or near the bottom. That 34% represents mostly unshakeable far-right wingers. Like Bush, Vice President Cheney and company, they are in denial. As were the 24% in the polls who still approved of President Richard Nixon before he resigned in disgrace."
[Al Neuharth, Founder, USA Today | May 05, 2006]
"Well you know Tony we’re trying to find the story behind the story, what’s actually going on here with Porter Goss. And talking with intelligence officials here in the building, I can tell you it came as a complete surprise to them.
In fact, Porter Goss was apparently supposed to attend a regularly scheduled afternoon meeting that takes place right about this time in the afternoon. The Defense Department has representatives there and, according to sources, none of the people at that meeting had any advance word that Porter Goss was going to be tendering his resignation.
So it indicates the sudden nature that this took place, and again it just fuels the speculation of what the real backstory is here. And again, nobody here seems to know. They are all all just really surprised, they had no idea this was coming. And they’re really just wondering what was actually behind it."
I've learned from a well-connected source that those under intense scrutiny by the FBI are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence comittees--including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post.
so the CIA nailed its own guy?
"Everyone on TV seems to be buying the line that the Goss resignation has been planned for weeks. No natural curiosity about the fact that it takes effect immediately, or that there is no replacement, or that he had a meeting scheduled this afternoon he didn’t show up for. Not to mention the fact that as Professor Foland pointed out in the comments, the White House would’ve probably sacrificed its collective left nut to avoid stepping on a drunk Kennedy story."
'I think there were either serious disputes or some internal problem at the agency or some scandal conceivably involving an associate of Goss’. Who knows? Something that popped this week and that caused this sudden event this Friday.'"
[ThinkProgress]
...senior administration officials said Bush had lost confidence in Goss, 67, almost from the beginning and decided months ago to replace him. In what was described as a difficult meeting in April with Negroponte, Goss was told to prepare to leave by May, according to several officials with knowledge of the conversation.Sure, it was planned months in advance. The announcement was sudden just to be surprising. And they didn't name the successor they'd selected to prolong the suspense.
Sen. Russ Feingold said he is "troubled by reports" that President Bush intends to nominate Gen. Michael Hayden to be CIA director, because Hayden defended the president's decision to authorize a no-warrant, domestic surveillance program.
...
"General Hayden directed and subsequently defended the president's illegal wiretapping program," Feingold said in a statement released by his office. "Neither he nor the rest of the administration informed the congressional intelligence committees about this program, as is required by law."
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posted by malaprohibita at 11:15 AM on May 5, 2006