Porter Goss's Record

Porter Goss has a great record -- of defending Bush and carrying water for the administration. He poo-pooed the idea that there was a need for an investigation into the outing of a CIA operative that endangered the lives of people who had risked their lives to provide information to our country. As far as he was concerned, there was no evidence to suggest that the leaking of the info to reporters had been willful.

"Somebody sends me a blue dress and some DNA, I'll have an investigation," Goss said at the time. (Hey, that's two Democratic slams at once! Nice job.) Of course, if you don't investigate, there won't be any evidence. One might make a reasonable objection to an investigation on such a serious issue -- let's not forget, we have every reason to believe there is a felon in the White House that should go to jail for this crime and Bush doesn't care. This gratuitious slam indicates Goss's cavalier attitude towards national security and the safety of our agents and their contacts.

Recently, Goss got on the floor of the Congress to belittle John Kerry and claim he was weak on intelligence -- perfectly reasonable partisan politics, but not the sign of someone who would gain broad support when a quick and timely transition is so imperative.

Senator Pat Roberts, the Republican head of the Senate Select Committe on Intelligence assumed Goss wouldn't be nominated because top Democrats objected to Goss as too partisan. Roberts didn't agree with them but thought it was too important to move quickly to get into a dragged-out partisan fight.

“My only message to the White House is if they do this, make it an extraordinary person that will get bipartisan support," said Roberts. "My criterion for it is that the intelligence director should be someone who has a lot of information-management experience because that’s what it’s all about.”

In June, Goss blasted George Tenet and the C.I.A. via his committee's report. Isn't everyone? Yes, but Goss's complaint was unique: the C.I.A., Goss says, spends TOO MUCH time focusing on counterterrorism.

Goss was a sponsor of Patriot II, which would give the government the right not only to secret grand juries but secret arrests of US citizens. Lovely. He is widely seen by critics as a hand-puppet of Dick Cheney. Who will he report directly to: Condi Rice as would be traditional? One big warning sign of further politicization of the C.I.A. would be if he reports instead to Dick Cheney.

Finally, as head of the House Intelligence Committee, he is one of the principal people directly responsible for the shameful lack of oversight that led to both 9/11 and the shoddy, misleading evidence used to bolster Bush's determination to invade Iraq. If Goss was part of the problem, why would he be part of the solution?