More on Hayden tomorrow, but I want to highlight the nasty bias reporters have for the military in this one snippet from a story about Hayden’s probable move to head the CIA:

Despite his military background, Hayden, 61, is something of a nonconformist.

Like folks in the military cannot be inventive, break new ground, develop brand new approaches, create new ideas or surprise an enemy with never before seen stratagies. The military is just a bunch of robots and it is a shock to see a soldier thinking for themselves. What a pile of cr*p.

There is a pattern in his career of independent thinking, probably one reason he was able to thrive in the current security environment.

What morons these reporters are (Thomas Ricks and Dafna Linzer). The only place stuck on stupid is the long term CIA rogues who cannot face the fact they screwed up. The CIA was against the new technology of Able Danger! They were the ones who have been fighting change. The aviators who fly missions over hostile defenses, the Special Operations folks who go behind enemy lines and infiltrate enemy defenses – they all have the ability to think independently. Which is a lot more than you can say for the dumb herd mentality of the press corpse. Look at some of the ridiculous speculation:

Agency insiders probably will be suspicious of Hayden, a career military man.

Career bureaucrats will be suspicious of a career military man? Why? And check out this strange and silly concept – the poor CIA is getting beat up by the mean old DoD

They also will be skeptical that the mild-mannered Hayden can protect them from the bureaucratic maneuverings of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who in recent years has built up military intelligence and made it more independent of CIA oversight.

Life is simple in the government. Do your job and you are fine. Screw it up and you are fine. Screw it up many times over and put people at risk and then you are in trouble. These folks are definitely antagonistical towards the military

Nor have military officers had much success leading the CIA in recent decades.

Could that possibly be because the laurel-sitting CIA old dogs lost the ability to hunt 20 years ago? What a crock. There hasn’t been that many military leaders of the CIA in the last couple of decades. Is he including Bush Senior in that group? Face it, the CIA is running scared and they are totally afraid of the military now. Listen to this BS

But, said this and several other officials, it would be a mistake to put someone in uniform in charge of a civilian agency.

Earth to anonymous leaker: The CIA has had uniformed military leaders and they were just fine. For example!

Should Hayden be nominated, Vice Adm. Albert M. Calland III, the CIA’s deputy director, is expected to be replaced by a former senior CIA officer from the clandestine service who is now in government outside the agency, according to former senior intelligence officials who have been contacted about the appointment but were sworn to secrecy.

First note the deputy director is now a uniformed officer. No big deal. Also note that there are plans to bring in someone from outside the CIA to be Hayden’s deputy. It would be interesting to see who this person will be. Especially given this prediction

The agency and particularly the DO [Directorate of Operations, the clandestine service] will be happy with this choice,” one former senior official said yesterday.

Someone he knows I suspect. BTW, Pincus worked on this tripe. No wonder the media is seen as disfunctional. It actually is.

BTW – I like how Goss is handling this – he is torturing the media.

As Goss left his home Saturday on his way to give a commencement address in Ohio, he declined to explain his resignation, telling CNN that “it’s one of those mysteries.”

For the press corpse, much of life is a mystery.