CIA Director Porter Goss resigned suddenly today… so suddenly that neither he nor President Bush seemed to have time to come up with a coherent reason.
Maybe it was the growing bribery scandal, or maybe it was the hookers, but his resignation after less than two years on the job certainly suggests this is more than just a routine shake up. In 2004 Goss left his powerful post as chair of the House Intelligence Committee, and it’s hard to imagine he expected his tenure at the CIA to be so short.
What we do know is that the GOP’s years of absolute power have corrupted many of its most powerful members absolutely. And it’s finally beginning to catch up with the party as a whole.
The other night on Charlie Rose, prominent Republican consultant Ed Rollins seemed almost beside himself with the predicament his party was in. Much to the surprise of his fellow panelists, he predicted as many as 15 congressman could be indicted before this year’s midterm elections. He said there might be a couple Democrats in there, but he made it clear that this is largely a Republican problem.
Rollins talked about all the promises his party had made in 1994 to do things differently, to sweep out the corruption and end the influence of the K Street lobbyists. But all that quickly went out the window. According to Rollins, the Republicans have become as corrupt and entrenched as the Democratic leadership ever was… and “probably worse.”
I wondered at the time if Rollins knew something about the unfolding scandals that his fellow panelists didn’t know. Goss’ sudden resignation makes me wonder anew.
You’d think this news was worthy of Stefan mentioning on his website….nah…you can bet if the CIA director suddenly resigned in a Democratic administration, the sarcastic posting would be immediate!
I’m sure Goss left “to spend more time with his family.”
Maybe Goss was just tired of being affiliated with a bunch of “the buck stops nowhere” liars who can’t stop lying. Looks like the GOP “echo chamber” crew did a lousy job filtering out non-believers for Rumsfeld’s appearance in Atlanta yesterday.
Rumsfeld: …it appears that there were not weapons of mass destruction there.
McGovern: You said you knew where they were.
Rumsfeld: I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were and…
McGovern: You said you knew where they were. Tikrit, Baghdad, northeast, south, west of there. Those are your words.
Rumsfeld: My words-my words were that-no-no, wait a minute–wait a minute. Let him stay one second. Just a second….
Here’s the transcript that PROVES Rumsfeld was lying AGAIN yesterday. So much for trying to pin the blame on the CIA:
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, weapons of mass destruction. Key goal of the military campaign is finding those weapons of mass destruction. None have been found yet. There was a raid on the Answar Al-Islam Camp up in the north last night. A lot of people expected to find ricin there. None was found. How big of a problem is that? And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Not at all. If you think — let me take that, both pieces — the area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
Cuban President Fidel Castro, who claims a personal vow of poverty, apparently is worth $900 million.
The Cuban dictator ranked #7 on the Forbes magazine list of wealthy heads-of state, according to a report in the New York Post. [Communism really pays!!! Watch Hillary over the next ten years!!!]
[Just a Cocksucking Hypocrit]
You know all about prostitution, were you involved with Goss at all?
“Something happened,” neo-conservative magazine editor William Kristol said on Fox News this afternoon. “It’s going to be a bad few days. We’re going to discover something … It will be something not good for the Bush Administration.”
Fox News actually got a phone call from a “top White House official” during Kristol’s damning comments, and Kristol was cut off so Bush mouthpiece Chris Wallace could say the Goss resignation is just a harmless part of the “White House shakeup.” Sure.
http://www.wonkette.com/politi.....172000.php
These lunatics cannot get anything right.
Now if only we could persuade leading Dems to kick them in the nuts.
Hey Thomas Unwound…
Why is it Stefan’s responsibility to comment, His sight is called Sound Politics, you know, as in local.
” From each, according to their abilities, To each, according to their needs, and Democrats have LOTS of needs!!” [Karl Marx and JDB]
Thomas Trainset 10:Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at August 27, 2004 05:04 PM
Wow, less than two years old.
The Fish (hardly worth the name of “Shark”) is a whiny girl.
Don’t cry now wingnuts…
The Fish
Many of us refer to him as “the minnow”.
[Just a Cocksucking Hypocrit]:
Yes, that’s right, suggesting that people should pay there fair share in taxes is Marxist.
I take it you rely on your pimp to do your economics for you?
Commentby JDB— 5/5/06@ 3:22 pm
” From each, according to their abilities, To each, according to their needs, and Democrats have LOTS of needs!!” [Karl Marx and JDB]
Now, how does Goss know Foggo?
That’s how we get into the other part of this story — those ‘hospitality suites’, that moveable feast of food, poker and love, Brent Wilkes ran in Washington for maybe fifteen years. We hear that’s how Goss got to be friends with Foggo, whom he later promoted to executive director of the CIA, the number 3 post at the Agency.
Now, last week, Goss denied he had attended any of Wilkes’ parties, in answer to a question from TPMmuckraker. Foggo admitted attending the parties but claimed he’d never seen the hookers…
–Josh Marshall
Never seen the hookers? Yeah, sure!
Commentby Thomas Trainwinder— 5/5/06@ 3:51 pm
Looks like Stefan was right on point in his 08/27/2004 posting on Sound Politics. Kerry did lie about spending Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia — no question about that. And the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did expose that Kerry lie.
Commentby For the Clueless— 5/5/06@ 4:06 pm
Yep, those are the poll numbers all right. Shows Bush’s popularity down by over 15% — from a little over 50% in January 2005 to a little under 35% in May 2006.
However, the U.S. economy created over 3.5 million new jobs from December 2004 to April 2006, and the unemployment rate fell from 5.4% to 4.7% during that same period of time.
Unfortunately, popular perception is sometimes different than actual reality. When popular perception adjusts to actual reality, Democrat fantasies of electoral gains will turn into forgotten dreams.
Look how hard up Pope-A-Dope is to change the subject. He’d rather talk about a 35 year old story MADE UP AND PROVED WRONG by people who ACTUALLY SERVED with John Kerry than talk about the fact that TODAY – RIGHT NOW – the GOP, Goss and the Bush regime are mired in scandal. Hookers no less. HE HE!
LeftTurn 19:
Then, if Goss was in any way connected, or going to be connected to the ‘hookers’ story, why would the President be seen with him today? If there’s more there, then you would have seen just the announcement and that’s it.
As reported….
“There have been weeks-long policy disputes between Goss and John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, over the future of the CIA, sources who were close to the discussions told CNN.
According to sources, Negroponte’s decision to transfer certain functions from the CIA to his office were fiercely resisted by Goss, who believe the moves would diminish the agency’s power and ability to function.
After the White House sided with Negroponte and his deputy, Gen. Michael Hayden, it was a mutual decision that Goss would resign, the sources said.”
Pope @ 18
“Unfortunately, popular perception is sometimes different than actual reality. When popular perception adjusts to actual reality, Democrat fantasies of electoral gains will turn into forgotten dreams.”
After ravaging the economy at the outet of his administration, Bush has spent the rest of his time in office trying to regain Clinton’s economic numbers. Positive economic indicators we are seeing now are outweighed by the “actual reality” (is there some other kind?) of the middle and lower classes taking a hit in terms of spending power, hours worked to stay above water, hope for betterment, etc. You Bushites sure as hell better hope that popular perception never catches up to reality. If it does, the Republicans will be lying next to the Whigs in the graveyard of political parties next in no time at all. They’ve fooled Americans long enough.
He new did he Goldy?
4
Riddle: What do Fidel Castro and George W. Bush have in common?
Answer: They’re both lying dictators who steal from the peasants!
Goss was generally regarded as a hatchet man, put in charge of the CIA to conduct an idealogical purge. Maybe some of the professionals he ran out (you know, the ones who dealt with the “real world” and had the temerity to amass ample proof that the administration’s about Saddam’s WMD were a load, and that, oh, maybe Bush/Condi/Dicke/Donnie had ample warning that 9/11 was about to happen) have decided it’s payback time, and that they have the guy nailed on something really damning.
Oh, sure…an ex-GOP congressman with roots in the CIA from the Casey/Bush1 era would have to be clean as a whistle. RIIIIIIGHT!
Carl @22,
Well, if you’re gonna make fun of my slopy proofreeding, you don’t have to cryptically make me search for the typo.
Republicans: Corrupt morally, ethically, and legally.
Hey Rabbit @23 – I thought you liked Castro? You did on March 19.
I like Castro’s system better. He confiscates the employer’s property, shoots the employer, and the workers get quality health care for free. We need something like that in America.
Commentby Roger Rabbit— 3/19/06@ 3:42 pm
You can see how hard up the right has become. The best they can do is attack Goldy’s proofreading. Man they are in deep shit. Their world is coming down around them. Their heros are all either in jail or under arrest. They face a party that is turning on itself. Their approvals are lower than low. The whole world is making fun of them. They must be on the edge of suicide. Hey go for it. Make America a better place. Kill yourselves! The country might just come back from the Hell you’ve tried to create here.
@12-
HWo is a whiny girl? Have you not been listeneing to your deadbeat zero Goldy- Now THAT is a whiiiiiner.
Danno, you’ve got quite the swagger. Do that again.
-“As my friend for almost 50 years,” Negroponte said in a statement after Goss’s announcement, “I will miss Porter’s day-to-day counsel. I salute his service to our country, and I want to thank him for his outstanding work on behalf of the men and women of our nation’s intelligence community.” But sources tell ABC News that Negroponte told Goss just last week that it was time for him to resign.-
How mafia-esque was that move? Will Goss wake up this morning with a dead horse in his bed?
If this isn’t a sure sign of the downfall of the Republikkkan dynasty, I don’t know what is.
-Kerry did lie about spending Christmas Eve 1968 in Cambodia-
I mean, it has been pretty obvious that Richard Pope has no friends, no clients, nor any immediate family (unless you count the Sound Politics cult) – but this statement alone pretty much cements that fact.
It’s almost as if poor Richard is crying out: “look at me, I’m a complete wingnut idiot.”
Thank you, Goldy, for providing Richard Pope with an intellectual Golden Gate Bridge to jump off…
Maybe Poor Richard will run for Kitsap County Dog Catcher in 2006 (that’s how his hero Chris Vance first got his start.) We can only anticipate it will be another exciting election year for him.
-Yep, those are the poll numbers all right. Shows Bush’s popularity down by over 15% – from a little over 50% in January 2005 to a little under 35% in May 2006.-
Yeah, that 50.001% was the huge “mandate” you GOP cretins were heralding back then, wasn’t it, Mr. Rope a Pope?
Classic Video – Goss saying “I couldn’t get a job at the CIA”
http://throwawayyourtv.com/200.....r-cia.html
The administration saying the Goss resignation was known for weeks or whatever is just another one of their many, many, many, many, many lies. It it plainly apparent that this just happened.
And maybe this is why. From the Wall Street Journal via Josh Marshall at 8:18 PDT:
“We’d seen signs of it. But the WSJ got the goods. Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, #3 man at CIA, hand-picked by Porter Goss, is under federal criminal investigation in the Wilkes-Cunningham bribery and contracts scandal. ”
— Josh Marshall
Rollins is one of the few Republicans who never swallowed the entire glass of the bush family’s kool-aide recipe.
“Gossie, you’ve done a helluva job!”
Hookers.Bribes.Lies.
That’s the Republican Party for you!