The Hayden Nomination

I have mixed feelings about this one, only because Mike was friendly towards me and a good source on Yugoslav issues, but I recognize that the bottom line is that Mike Hayden royally prostituted himself at NSA on the warrantless wiretap programs, and I'd also give at least some credence to multiple reports of his dictatorial management style. It's not the Mike I knew, but then people change. If you take a step back and asked former senior NSA officials what they think of warrantless wiretaps, I'm sure you'd get the answer that the individual involved, if a military officer, should have faced a court-martial. It's a serious deal. Compounding the problem is Mike's history of 'farming-out' NSA activities, which all signs indicate would become the practice again at Langley, particularly regarding covert operations being spun over to the Pentagon. I mean, if you're going to go that route, why have a CIA, or for that matter a State Department? No, Mike Hayden is the wrong guy for the job and if the Republicans are smart about it they'll balk. If they don't I predict this will become the millstone that takes Bush into the mid-twenties...