The Daily Background

General Hayden was unsurprisingly confirmed by the full Senate today by a surprising vote of 78-15. I’m not sure anybody expected it to be that clear cut.

Notables voting against Hayden were Arlen Specter (the only Republican to oppose the general), Russ Feingold, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Ted Kennedy, and Hillary Clinton. I’m surprised Patrick Leahy didn’t vote against.

What does this mean for 2006? Well, it means that some Republicans in the House are going to be pissed off at the President, which is a good thing if that being pissed off state spills over on to the immigration issue. A deepening divide on a host of issues between “moderate” and conservative Republicans is not a bad thing at all to have in an election year. At least for Democrats.

What does this mean for the CIA? Well, it’s going to have a military leader for the first time. Many, many Republicans have said this is a bad thing. It’s now an open secret that the CIA was wrecked under the highly partisan and political Porter Goss, and it could actually make things worse to have Hayden in charge; a man who, while not overtly political like Goss (who had served as a Republican congressman), might make changes (or try to) too quickly to the civilliam spy agency which already at a fragile time.

Filed under: Hayden, Z-TDB Blog