see, all it takes is a little sex to make a real scandal. ah, the delicious irony!
why so early in the day? maybe the friday news dump holds the answer.
scotty mac's last day, too!
Posted by benjoya at May 5, 2006 11:11 AMgoss is stepping down to spend more time with his pet scorpion.
Posted by benjoya at May 5, 2006 11:13 AMGoss is stepping down to spend more time with the prostitutes.
Posted by snark at May 5, 2006 11:16 AMBush put Goss in to clamp down on any non-believers in the CIA that might have wanted to blab on Plamegate, Spygate and all the other lies Bush and Tenet were in on. Unfortunately, all of Bush's cronies, Goss included, are crooks and liars too so eventually it catches up with all of them. In Goss's case, looks like Cunningham/Hookergate has Porter in it's sight. Put plainly, he ain't leaving cause he's tired. Big question, who will Bush install? Rove?
Posted by T2 at May 5, 2006 11:18 AMNo, the current DC noise has Bush appointing the Dixy Chicks to the post. They may change a few things...
Posted by tempus at May 5, 2006 11:32 AMWill the whistle blowers come out of the woodwork now that the boss is gone and no one to take his place? I hope so!
Posted by goose1 at May 5, 2006 11:33 AMThat's opening a 20 gallon can of worms.
Posted by tempus at May 5, 2006 11:35 AMOh, this is too delicious! Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone!
Posted by iamcoyote at May 5, 2006 11:39 AMI still wonder how the intellegence community is going to pay back whoever exposed Plame and endangered her contacts. Oh, to be a fly on certian walls at the right time.
Posted by herbal tee at May 5, 2006 11:40 AMI'm sure he just wants to spend more time with his family! At least before he get's fragged by all those digruntled agents.
Posted by red_neck_repub at May 5, 2006 11:49 AMA bribery and corruption investigation involving the CIA and the defense industry is some serious shit.
Are these Texas Hee-Haws really so stupid as to think they can get away with in Washington what passed for normal business practices in Houston?
The USS George Bush is sinking fast!
Posted by Christopher at May 5, 2006 11:54 AMWe'll now pretty quick if it's hookers. If nothing comes out, we might want to get paranoid. Goss may know something monumentally stupid is imminent and bailed.
Posted by Tim at May 5, 2006 12:06 PMTwo words, kids: recess appointment. The last thing the administration intends is to go through confirmation hearings before November.
Posted by Lex at May 5, 2006 12:10 PMFriday afternoon: the time for the WH to release bad news.
Posted by Big Red at May 5, 2006 12:12 PMFor excellent Goss resignation coverage goodness and speculation...I urge those interested to visit Laura Rozen's War and Piece blog. She's got some interesting tidbits...Like this was an unplanned announcement after a visit to Negroponte's office today,... Frago Townsend offered job and turned it down....and that this may give Rummy's DIA and military all the power he wants on intelligence matters (that last part is a scary thought) if the post is left unfilled....and lastly Dana Priest says to read WaPo tomorrow to find out why Goss retired. All of the above comes Laura's War and Piece blog.
Posted by emal at May 5, 2006 12:28 PMOn the job less than two years, a controversial nomination that didn't sail right through, gives up a long term seat in the House, and he "resigns" without the slightest explanation.
It's like watching the Kremlin in 1981.
Does the press ask (or get to ask) any questions anymore?
Posted by euzoius at May 5, 2006 12:30 PMand that this may give Rummy's DIA and military all the power he wants on intelligence matters (that last part is a scary thought) if the post is left unfilled...
emal - bingo! Iran, here we come. Shit shit shit...
Posted by iamcoyote at May 5, 2006 12:35 PMiamcoyote...I agree entirely and am worried about it as yourself,but I want people to be clear that that whole idea (increased pentagon power/role over intelligence) came from Laura's blog and I was just repeating that worry here.
She's updating her blog often on this story..must have some great sources.
Rummy, Cheney, Negroponte...making a bold bid for consolidating their power?
Posted by emal at May 5, 2006 12:50 PMdon't get ahead of yourself, coyote. do you think goss was some sort of impediment in the march to war? how is getting rid of an absolute water-carrier like goss going to strenthen the neo-cons?
Posted by benjoya at May 5, 2006 12:51 PMThis is great news......whistler blowers will feel empowered, retired CIA will feel empowered and increase the criticism of the war and all things Bush Co. The old guard still in the company should flex their muscle and kick some ass now that the main man is gone.
People should understand that to fool around with the CIA is to play with fire...I'm anxious to find out why Goss is out.....all in good time I say.
Benjoya, I'm thinking that since they haven't been able to shut up the CIA, they'll just destroy it, then use their own (cruddy) intel services as a replacement. They'll just say, "look, another gov't institution that doesn't work..." sorta thing. There's no way the pretzeldent's gonna give up on Iran.
But that's obviously all knee-jerk right now, since info is trickling in. And thanks, emal, I'm watching Rozen and Josh Marshall, who's got a good backstory post up.
Posted by iamcoyote at May 5, 2006 01:14 PMBy now, the Cable Media is in full tilt "Kennedy goes crazy" mode. Kennedy's incident - whatever the cause- is exactly what the GOPers have been praying for for months. On cue, the Media is now devoting equal time to both Kennedy's issue and the mystery resignation of the CIA HEAD! Look for the Media to fan this Kennedy thing into the biggest scandal in years, while soft peddling the Goss thing and the rest of Bush's scandals. Several more GI's killed today in Iraq, but forget that - there's a Dem to grill.
Posted by T2 at May 5, 2006 01:20 PMEd Schultz is doing the Kennedy story on AAR right now, they're talking about Ambien addiction, blah blah blah.
Thinking more about Iran - So Rummy's DIA (is that it?) comes up with silver bullet "intel" on Iran's nukes; the CIA tries to offer up real intel, or research (left over from Plame days) that Rove can easily discredit since the CIA's embroiled in a sex scandal that fires up the prudes in the audience. War with Iran. At least bombing of it. But that still doesn't take into account the reported Iranian troops, and now, Turkish troops moving to their borders around Kurdistan. I hope Riverbend's right about the 150,000 American hostages mired in Iraq keeping Bush from doing something stupid. Or am I being too alarmist?
Posted by iamcoyote at May 5, 2006 01:40 PMAnother thought in this context - I wonder if word that Plame's shopping a book around makes any of them nervous. Enough to not attempt the Iran Gambit?
Posted by iamcoyote at May 5, 2006 01:42 PMVia Laura: there are photographs.
Uh oh. Maybe Porter got a hold of a couple of 8x10s.
Posted by knobboy at May 5, 2006 01:56 PMI can tell you, without a shred of doubt; a war with Iran is not the same as a war with Iraq, Grenada, or any other tin-pot war. A war with Iran may just be WWIII, and if it goes nuclear, we won't be fighting them there, instead of here. This is absolutely insane. Do people not realize how dangerous this is? No military commander I have ever known would sanction this idiocy; it is left to brain-dead politicians.
Posted by tempus at May 5, 2006 02:03 PMIf Goss does turn out to be involved that would give legs (or wheels) to the Limo service REconnection which would then point toward DHS. All we need now is to find pictures of Gannon in one of the Limos or wait...wasn't TPM going to see if Watergate had security cameras??
Posted by mainsailset at May 5, 2006 02:28 PMPenguin books?
Posted by Loyalsoldier at May 5, 2006 02:47 PMI am very surprised. WTF?
Posted by Toby Petzold at May 5, 2006 03:03 PMWhy can't we just leave it as "the cause of the resignation was Hookergate", just like the Swiftboaters?
Posted by whenwego at May 5, 2006 03:04 PMNegroponte has no real power to wield, I don't think. He's a figurehead. That may be the accepted spin, though. Everyone at FDL is speculating that there are pictures, and he could have been stung by CIA loyalists.
Posted by iamcoyote at May 5, 2006 03:18 PMNegroponte is one scary son-of-a-bitch.
When he oversaw the covert funding of the Contras and turned a blind eye to the murdersous human rights abuses in Nicaragua.
He has those classic 'dead eyes' seen in neocons, some Republicans and serial killers.
Posted by Christopher at May 5, 2006 03:50 PMIt's torture. Dana Priest supposed to come out tomorrow with a piece and she's the Rendition person; more pieces to rise soon on AbuGrab; and the LA Times hasn't yet (that I've seen) done any in depth piece on the computer flash memory parts they scored in Afghanistan with all the torture details and lastly, NYT has the article up about CIA testifying in front of UN about US torture policies; oh, and Spectre's pissed about the signing statements, including McCain's torture bill. Just my guess.
Posted by mainsailset at May 5, 2006 03:54 PMGoss is stepping down to spend a little more time with someone else's children.
Posted by Repack Rider at May 5, 2006 04:25 PMIIRC, Colon Powell once said something like "we're all taking ambien now." A Powell, ambien google yielded 118,000 hits: maybe we've been witnessing the first sleepwalking presidency.
Posted by Brian Boru at May 5, 2006 09:54 PM