Colour me thick, but I still haven't digested the import of the McCarthy allegations. And now this, another institutional story that spins well for the White House as final decider.
It's clear BushCo loathe CIA for its waffling and incompetence in the runup to war, but this bunch never does anything w/o political import. Isn't the game to militarize the covert op.s aspects of the CIA, politicize the analytic capabilities, and then let the husk implode for want of sustenance? Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rove win shortterm [the misdirection theory] but at the cost of the one last fief of HUMINT with some institutional competence. Who are you lot going to trust? The FBI? Nope. There's only that monster DIA left, NSA being tekkies on a rampage these days.
Moreover, this plays perfectly to the Bush base, which has no faith [ahem] in anything remotely egghead, eg, intell analysts who get stuff wrong.
One final thought: just a year ago, the CIA was boasting over 100K applications. How does that compare to the Army, which is losing recruitment appeal by the hour?
Foggo may have had his finger in a very smelly pie, but the institutional story is far bigger than Hookergate. This is for all the marbles.

Posted at May 12, 2006 4:02 PM in response to The Foggo of War