Another Bush fiasco in the making

Key Republican Airs Concerns on C.I.A. Pick - New York Times. With confirmation hearings likely not even scheduled, W's choice to succeed Porter "Good Times" Goss is already facing opposition from Republicans. In the House:

The man widely expected to be President George W. Bush's choice to lead the C.I.A. encountered surprisingly strong bipartisan opposition today, with the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee bluntly calling him "the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time."

In the Senate:

One Republican senator, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said he believed that even were General Hayden to resign his military commission, serious conflicts would remain.

"I think the fact that he is part of the military today would be the major problem," Mr. Chambliss said on ABC-TV. "Now, just resigning commission and moving on, putting on a striped suit, a pinstriped suit versus an air force uniform, I don't think makes much difference."

And Arlen Specter's vowing to probe the warrantless eavesdropping:

"With General Hayden up for confirmation, this will give us an opportunity to try to find out" more about that program, Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Fox-TV.

"If the Senate has a mind to assert its constitutional prerogatives here, then we could use this for leverage to find out, and I think people do want to know what's going on to protect civil liberties."

It should be quite entertaining to hear Hayden on the protection of civil liberties. He's already demonstrated a questionable grasp of the 4th amendment, check out the video evidence.