May 05 2006
Bre’r Rabbit Briar Patch CIA Move
Folks, you remember when Bush apparently hesitated about creating homeland defense and a new overarching intelligence infrastructure? Remember the outcry from the left and the media that he wasn’t following the 9-11 commission’s recommendations? Remember when he had supposedly surrendered (August 2004 for anyone interested – which is a year after the Plame Game blew).
Well now we have news Porter Goss has ‘abruptly‘ retired. Recall that Porter Goss was a very, very powerful Congressman who pulled the purse strings at the CIA (among other places). I had always wondered why he left the powerful position to become the whipping boy of US Representative who use to answer to him. And unless you have worked at the levels of Government where you have to go to the Hill to defend budgets, plans and performance you have no idea what a thankless job that can be. (I have friends at NASA who do it and I have immense sympathy for them).
I am with Mac Ranger on this one – this was planned. And not just in the last few months. This was planned for years. Porter Goss was obviously ready to retire in another election cycle, but was talked into going to the CIA and taking care of business. He chased the deadwood out, and some of the rogue elements. He nabbed a leaker (and probably numerous others), and he allowed Congress to diminish the CIA’s leadership through integration with the Director of National Intelligence. He was an old CIA man and knew where to surgically slice to keep the agencies capabilities and independence intact, but carve out all the rot.
Bush played Briar Rabbit and begged not to be forced to create the office of DNI. And he did so knowing quite well the new organization offered a once in a century opportunity to shake up moribund institutions. Bush has done more to fix government in his four years than has been done in the last 100. It is stunning to see what he did to:
- Department of Defense through Rumsfeld’s new force structure
- Department of Education through No Child Left Behind
- All the dysfunctional and competing organizations now under Homeland Defense
- Pulling the Coast Guard into a new independent status in Homeland Defense
- Redirecting NASA through the Exploration effort to the Moon and Mars
- Fixing Medicare and Medicaid by offering a Prescription Drug Plan (before it was emergency room care access only)
Look at that list folks and understand there are even more that are not well known or advertised. Goss is out because he established the proper relationship with DNI agreed upon years ago when this started. The news media never detects this kind of strategy because it takes years to implement and the media has the attention span of a gnat. That’s why they cannot fathom what is going on. But for those of us who do know, it is truly stunning.
No one has left as large an imprint as George Bush has on the Government of the United States since FDR and WW II. The media’s BDS blinds them to this amazing accomplishment. But it is for real.
So much for your “no news ” day!!!!
The mark of a leader isn’t how well he does while he is present, it is what is accomplished after he is gone. A leader gets things done, a good leader makes others get things done, a great leader exists, even in absence like a spectre to ensure that things will be done, and done right.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt hover over the Presidency letting whoever it is that sits in that seat that they must live up to previous examples. Puller, MacArthur, Ike, Bradley, Pershing, McClellan. . . . hell even Lee hovers over every man in uniform who leads, so that everyone knows that a thing must be done, and for them to ensure it gets done.
I don’t know if Goss is that kind of man, but I think he knows the difference between being a proper been counter leader, personaly leading the assault on treason in the CIA, and real leadership. If he was to the CIA 1/10th of what Hoover was to the FBI, that is a MAJOR accomplishment.
No reason to assume anything yet, but I hope he was a Grant, rather than a Burnsides.
Sad,
It was slow when I left! That’s my story and I’m sticking by it…..
“No one has left as large an imprint as George Bush has on the Government of the United States since FDR and WW II”
I would say to have a look at Harry S. Truman when his approval ratings were in the 20% range. He was creating the CIA, NSA, and Joint Chiefs of Staff while the left was complaining that he was building a police state while body bags were flowing back from Korea. Truman’s work won the cold war decades after Harry was gone.
Bush is basically re-organizing and modernizing the infrastructure that Truman built to reflect the modern reality and I have a hunch Bush will go down as the US President that saved Western civilization. That might take decades of hard work to come to pass, though.
Not to take anything away from FDR, but I would say since Truman, not since FDR.
Crosspatch,
I agree with your view there. Consider it now since Truman!
The analogy to Truman is right on I think. Both Truman and Bush had to make some very big decisions and that can make enemies.
I hope you’re right.
Btw, Bre’r Rabbit. Bre’r = Brother in the black dialect stories that feature that character. A briar patch figured in one of those stories.
Was Porter Out Of Order?…
Never mind that headline, just a lame attempt at a cheap laugh…
Why did Goss leave, though?
AJ and Mac Ranger think he did his duty and went on his merry way…
Think Progress sees it as a preemptive move to avoid a burgeoning Duke Cunnin…
I think it went like this:
Board of Directors sees falling profits and production and decide the company needs a shaking up. They send in ball buster CEO to clean house. The tell the staff that the CEO is there to stay (aids in the cleanup effort by encouraging the disenchanted to leave). CEO cleans house and puts programs in place to get things going in the right direction. At some point the ground is all worked (sorry for mixing metaphors here) and the seeds all planted, not much left to do but tend to a few fences. Now the decision is made to get that CEO out because he has caused some chafing. You put a new guy in place who had nothing to do with the housecleaning so that the team in place then then begin to bond and get moving again.
Basically, there comes a point where leaving the guy in place starts costing you more in terms of productivity than bringing in the new guy.
Actually it is starting to look more like it was Negroponte saying to Bush “it’s either my way or his way, one or the other”. Bush chose Negroponte’s way, Goss said “Later, dudes!”
truman was very second rate! He fired MacArthur. He lied through his teeth when it came to MacArthur. (Especially that one about MacArthur’s plane refusing to land “first.” It was on the ground hours before truman even showed up. MacArthur had time to shower and breakfast. And, what got truman’s goat was that he was at the bottom of the stairs, when truman disembarked his plane, WITHOUT A TIE! Then, his complaint was “costume.”
Yes, truman got away with a lot. Even with the recognition of Israel, he really believed Israel would be done in by the arabs. And, he didn’t want to look bad. That was truman! Always worried about how he’d look. While the government was infested with soviet spies. And, the UN, using russia and china, set the Americans up in korea. A USELESS PIECE OF TERRITORY IN THE PACIFIC! Dean Rusk split it into two parts. But the country isn’t really divisible. Add to this how Nehru also helped the russians. The idea was the the UN would create “stalemate.” And, it was MacArthur who got bumped.
FDR was a giant! He didn’t get pushed into war when Europe toppled into it. He told Churchill he would never let American troops be led by the European generals. And, he also told Churchill that once we were committed we would NEVER save the colonies for the Europeans. WHen you see Bush’s plans to bring democracy to the globe; those were FDR’s plans, too. And, MacArthur’s greatest achievement was to bring democracy to those savages, the Japs! While truman tried to get him out of japan, by promising him parades.
Truman was a second-rater. And, like LBJ, knew enough to run home, instead of seeking a second term. Some day our history books will toss the PC stuff. The truth’s breathtaking. And, wonderful. But not for the donks.