Portergeist

There's one scene in Fahrenheit 9/11 that I looked forward to when I brought a friend to see the movie for the first time. Remember when Moore showed a few seconds of his interview with Florida Rep. Porter Goss? As Goss spoke glowingly about the PATRIOT Act and Moore caught him lying about the public having an 800 number to call if they have complaints about the act, I'd whisper to a friend, "There's the new director of the CIA." They would reply back with "What?," not because I was incomprehensible, but after seeing this representative of our government support the PATRIOT Act and pass off lies, it's rather unbelievable that he could be put in charge of the CIA.

Well, here comes Portergeist!

Over the past month, Goss, 65, exhibited little enthusiasm for the broad intelligence changes proposed by the Sept. 11 commission, urging caution instead and proposing legislation to expand the power and budget of his old agency. ...

Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), a member of the House intelligence committee that Goss chairs, said Goss has refused to investigate why the administration falsely asserted Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, as well as a possible intelligence connection to prisoner abuse in Iraq and the media leaks surrounding a CIA officer's identity.

But, but, Porter certainly wouldn't goss over any facts, right? Wrong.

Goss is also what USA Today calls a "friend and close political ally of the president." The paper says he was offered the job during a private dinner with Bush last week. As everybody notes, Goss has served as Bush's surrogate attack dog. He criticized Kerry recently for the Democrat supposedly having voted for "devastating cuts" to the CIA's budget back in the 1990s. (None of the papers seem to wonder whether was Goss was recalling history correctly. For the record, he wasn't.)

In short, Bush has nominated a partisan, lying sack of shit who doesn't see anything wrong with the intelligence community to head the CIA. Why anybody continues to take Bush seriously on the issue of national security is beyond me.