May 5, 2006 
Porter Goss just resigned as director of the CIA. That was unexpected. Hadn’t he just delivered Mary McCarthy to be burned at the stake? Isn’t he Dick’s boy?
CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly Friday, leaving behind a spy agency still battling to recover from the scars of intelligence failures before America’s worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S. rationale for invading Iraq.
Hmmm, does this mean investigators had tied Goss to the Cunningham scandal? Think Progress connects the dots. See also Peter Daou.
William Branigan of the Washington Post reports that neither Bush nor Goss gave a reason for the sudden departure. Early news stories implied that Goss’s resignation was part of the second-term shakeup. That doesn’t wash, I say; Goss wasn’t on the White House staff and had only been CIA director for two years. Plus, it seems he’s been zealously doing the White House’s bidding by using polygraphs to sniff out leakers at the agency — a high priority among Bushies.
When Goss became CIA director two years ago he was charged with the job of “reforming” the agency, which meant transforming the CIA from an intelligence agency to part of the White House’s political support team. It’s possible the Bushies didn’t believe the transformation was happening fast enough. Maybe they want to replace Goss with an even bigger toady. But the righties seem dumbstruck. Even Bill Kristol was caught off guard.
Bill Kristol, executive director of The Weekly Standard, told Fox News Channel that there had been “no rumblings” of such a departure.
“I don’t think the White House was expecting this,” Kristol said. “It comes as a total surprise. I may be overly suspicious here, but this one just has a real element of surprise and suddenness that makes me wonder if something popped in the last few days that led to this announcement.”
Back in July 2004, Ray McGovern (you might remember Ray McGovern from yesterday’s “Quiz Rummy!” episode) called Goss “Cheney’s Cat’s-Paw.”
He has long shown himself to be under the spell of Vice President Dick Cheney, and would likely report primarily to him and to White House political adviser Karl Rove rather than to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. …
… Appointing Goss would administer the coup de grâce to intelligence analysts trying to survive while still speaking truth without fear or favor. The only saving grace for them would be the likelihood that they would be spared “multiple visits” by Cheney to the inner sanctum where it used to be possible to produce unvarnished analysis without vice presidents and other policy makers looking over their shoulders to ensure they “had thought of everything.” Goss, who has a long history of subservience to Cheney, could be counted upon to play the Cheney/Gingrich/et al. role himself.
Larry Johnson says he doesn’t believe Goss’s resignation is part of the White House shakeup; it’s more likely Goss is in trouble.
This could get juicy.
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