General alarm

It's going to be Hayden for CIA Director, and:

..Should be a nice, easy session for Tony Snow on his first day, and a fun confirmation hearing a few weeks from now. And by “fun,” I of course mean excruciatingly contentious and divisive.

Yikes. Tony Snow's mettle will immediately be tested, as the White House press corp will be like a hungry pack of jackals moving in on a wounded large lumbering cow-like animal they usually pounce on, whatever that might be.

It's hard to figure why Bush would nominate the very man at the epicenter of the NSA surveillance flap unless he's just addicted to tweaking his nutball opponents (or just loves a challenge?). Let's put aside the silly notion that Michael Hayden might be the most qualified for the job, because hey, we're talking politics here!

There's no question that bringing Hayden to the Senate for confirmation (and into the public limelight again) will re-open the NSA debate. Bush and Negroponte and Cheney (oh my) know this. Therefore, unless they've gone crazy it's happening for a reason. Again, forget the qualifications part, we're talkin politics. Obviously, they want this debate. Why on earth?

We may soon find out. Remember, the FBI continues to search for the leakers who fed James Risen his Pulitzer winning Times story that generated his subsequent nove, er book on the NSA surveillance project. From this Hayden nomination alone can we assume said leaker(s) might be relatively widely known figures within the Democrat party or connected thereto?

Another possibility exists, aside from the fact Hayden might be the most qualified for the job, of course. Keep in mind he knows why Bush started the NSA spy program to begin with, and who the targets were. When the president announced the program back last December, he was careful to say the following when describing those targets:

"to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations."

the part in bold was intentional--Bush did not limit the program to 'al Qaeda' terrorists alone, because let's face it, we're dealing with threats from HizbAllah, HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, Muslim Brotherhood, and a host of others. Ironically or not, the abovementioned organizations are mostly connected to states, especially that great big one just east of Iraq.