LANGLEY SYNDROME:

Task for CIA's next chief: push Bush's agenda: To the president, streamlined intelligence is paramount. (Faye Bowers, 5//08/06, The Christian Science Monitor)

Mr. Goss, who said Friday he would step down as CIA director after 19 months at the helm, reportedly defended the CIA's status quo too strenuously. [...]

As a consequence, President Bush is likely to choose a CIA director more acquiescent to his streamlining goal - which may lead to a narrower role for the CIA.

If true, Mr. Goss's tenure is an object lesson in how quickly and easily bureaucracies co-opt even those who enter them with the specific mission of transaforming them. That's why Secretary Rumsfeld, the rare exception, ain't goin' nowhere.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 7, 2006 6:26 PM