Thursday, May 11, 2006

Why the Republican meltdown over the Hayden nomination? Kevin Drum surmises :
My guess is that congressional Republicans are really, really not happy at the prospect of a drawn-out series of hearings focused on Hayden's support for the NSA's domestic spying program. But they don't feel like they can say that, so instead they're claiming they don't want a military guy in charge of the CIA.
Yep, that seems about right. No need to remind the public that the guy proposed to head the top spook agency is a huge defender of an illegal spying program targeted at the public. Truth hurts.

But also it suggests that more than a few Republicans secretly agree with Sen. Arlen Specter, that the NSA program has crossed the line and is a legal transgression. Even more so, many of these same Republicans may not be overly familiar with Hayden but they are knowledgeable about Negroponte's past and they're very uncomfortable with what they know. Hayden is likely to do Negroponte's bidding and odds thus favor more unpleasant surprises down the road.

Of course, the GOP resistance to Hayden could also be stemming from his apparent association with the Cunningham/Hookergate scandal....

No comments: