The Goss Gang . . .

As if our intelligence community didn't have enough problems, Porter Goss, Bush's choice to head the CIA, seems to be channeling Fagin.

In his first week on the job Goss appointed four staffers from the House Intelligence Committee to senior positions at the CIA. Two of the positions didn't even exist before Goss made the appointments, and he filled the agency's third-highest position with a House committee staffer who'd already been fired from the CIA after being busted for shoplifting!

Democrats who went along with Bush's choice say they are quite perturbed by Goss's actions, especially since he reassured them time and again during nomination hearings that he'd eschew the kind of partisanship he'd show so often in the past. (After all, this is the guy who, as head of the Intelligence Committe, said he'd investigate the Plame outing when someone brought him a semen-stained dress.)

Come on Dems, give me a fuckin' break. You asked a former spook from the days of the Cold War and the anti-Castro operations run out of JM/WAVE to make you a promise, and you believed him?

Hey, I had a college professor I knew worked at The Rand Corporation, studied languages at the Army school in Monterey, and did post-grad work at Montreal's McGill University. So, naturally, I asked him if he was a CIA agent. He looked taken aback, then laughed and said, "No. But then, if I was, I wouldn't admit it, would I?" These guys are trained to not tell the truth . . .

For Pete's sake, Ray McGovern told you Goss was Cheney's cat's paw. What more does it take?