June 4, 2004
PUT UP OR SHUT UP:
Likely successors not top secret (Andrew Miga, June 4, 2004, Boston Herald)
Deputy CIA Director John E. McLaughlin will temporarily take over as chief of the troubled spy agency when George Tenet departs next month.But it's an interim promotion that could prove lasting.
McLaughlin, a bookish career CIA man, is widely considered a top contender to replace Tenet.
U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.), a former CIA officer, was also reportedly on President Bush's short list.
Other names mentioned as potential Tenet replacements include Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Many Washington insiders expect McLaughlin to stay in the top post at least through the November election.
McLaughlin is an amateur magician whose nickname inside the agency is ``Merlin.''
The best choice would be former Florida governor and retiring senator Bob Graham. He brings several attractive qualities to the job:
(1) He's a Democrat and a ferocious critic of the intelligence services and so would have automatic credibility.
(2) He's been chief executive of a major state, so should be able to run a vast institution.
(3) He remains reasonably popular in Florida and you get brownie points with Democrats there even as you shut him up.
(4) Unlike when Democrats refused to serve the new administration in December 2000, he almost has to take the job if offered publicly--it's nearly a matter of patriotism and certainly bad form for a critic to duck the job.
Posted by Orrin Judd at June 4, 2004 4:22 PMI agree, tell him to put up or shut up.
Posted by: some random person at June 4, 2004 4:29 PMI agree OJ, about Graham except for the minor detail that in the primaries, some people pointed that he was a complete "nutcase" with keeping some ridiculous diary.
Granted, a nutcase could probably handle the job as well as anyone in the past, however I think it would be better to give it to Porter Goss.
Posted by: h-man at June 4, 2004 5:54 PMDidn't he say some pretty outrageous things when he was a candidate? Besides the compulsive diary keeping, the off the wall statements caused me to write him off as too insane to worry about getting the Demo nomination.
Posted by: Kay at June 4, 2004 6:19 PMCompulisive diary keeping is not a great idea if you're the DCI and he also called for Bush to be impeached. I would have agreed with this suggestion a year ago before he revealed himself to be loco.
Instead, it'll be Rudy if he'll take it. He's aggressive, motivated and a proven administator. Going after the mafia was also good practice for going after Al Queda. It would be tough to lose him on the campaign trail and at the convention, but the announcement could be timed to coincide.
Otherwise, I'd consider Gen. McCaffery. Even though he hates Rummy and has been very critical of the administration. The fact that he's from team Clinton gives a certain degree of bipartisan cover and he's extremely aggressive, not withstanding his odd praise of Castro as drug czar. Just a thought.
Posted by: JAB at June 4, 2004 6:44 PMIs Goss likely to change anything?
Really the best reformer would be Admiral Poindexter, but confirmation would be unlikely.
Posted by: oj at June 4, 2004 7:23 PMHow 'bout Oliver North?
Posted by: jim hamlen at June 4, 2004 10:34 PMThe choice should not be based on party -- what we need is someone with a new approach to intelligence in the age of terrorism.
The current approach is similar to Bacon's conception of science -- collect a lot of data and miraculously somehow the answers will fall out. It didn't work for science, and it's not a good approach to modern intelligence -- there is just too much irrelevent data.
The military has a better model. Determine the possible scenarios and what critical data would indicate each (for example, a bunch of arabs taking flight training). Then let everyone, from top to bottom, know what these are so they know what to look for and immediately report. (The flight information was noticed on the local FBI level, but then ignored by the upper levels) You might miss some wild scenarios not anticipated, but you have a much better chance of stopping some of the others.
Posted by: jd watson at June 5, 2004 2:00 AMTwo alleged war criminals , Kerrey according to Vistica (who did the early slander of Kerry's
theatre commander, Admiral Hoffman) and McCaffrey
according to Hersh. One erstwhile case officer, none with middle east experience. Don't we have
anyone like the "Agency"s Robert Quinn.