A Softy for the CIA

Congressional Democrats complain that Rep. Porter J. Goss, whom President Bush nominated Tuesday to head the CIA, isn’t a good choice because he’s been sniping at presidential candidate John F. Kerry. They’re wrong. The chief problem with Goss, a Florida Republican, isn’t that he’s too partisan. It’s that Goss has been a patsy for the agency he’s now supposed to rebuild.

Goss has glittering credentials. The Yale-graduate-turned-CIA-operative amassed considerable experience in covert operations during the 1960s. But the nostalgic haze through which he views the days of the good old boys at the CIA distorted his work with the agency in Congress. As head of the House Intelligence Committee, Goss was responsible for congressional oversight of the CIA before Sept. 11, or, more precisely, the lack of it. He’s been a tenacious defender of the CIA’s perks and privileges and shielded it from any real scrutiny.

Sure, in the committee’s June report on intelligence failures, Goss fired off a thunderous and unexpected blast against his old buddy, George J. Tenet, for failing to reform the CIA and tolerating slipshod analyses. But where was Goss before it became politically convenient to backstab Tenet? Why wasn’t he grilling CIA officials about their Iraq assessments and lack of spies in the ranks of Al Qaeda?

Goss’ passivity suits Bush perfectly. He won’t challenge the president. He won’t fire any senior staff. Most likely, he won’t do much of anything. Goss, who has lobbied furiously for the job, including carrying water for the administration by attacking Kerry, would be happy simply to get the post.

If Bush had more self-confidence, he would have selected someone who would start reforming the CIA, which would mean on occasion challenging the president. A number of candidates spring to mind. Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas H. Kean, a Republican who heads the 9/11 commission, certainly grasps what needs doing and would move aggressively to improve the CIA’s work. So would Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) or Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), both with distinguished and long service on Senate foreign affairs and intelligence matters. Both are independent thinkers ready to argue their points, traits that have made Lugar persona non grata with the right wing of his own party.

Others on the “mentioned” list who should have been ahead of Goss were Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage and 9/11 commission member and former Navy Secretary John F. Lehman. Unlike Goss, both have experience running bureaucracies.

In nominating his fellow Yalie, Bush declared that Goss knows the agency “inside and out.” Indeed he does. Unfortunately, Goss loves the CIA not wisely but too well.