The next CIA boss is "a leader that listens well", says his current boss, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. Michael Hayden is the public face of the warrantless eavesdropping operations, and was leading the National Security Agency when the program was launched.
Typically, the democratic leaders who object to his appointment did not make much of that, choosing instead to concentrate on the fact that he would be a military man at the helm of a civilian agency. They probably forgot that their two most recent presidents, Carter and Clinton, also appointed military men to run the Agency. They possibly overlooked as well the fact that one of the few times the general decided to not publicly salute and go with the hierarchy involved a dispute with Don Rumsfeld.
True to form, the Defense Secretary disqualified the question when asked. He lamented the "pedestrian" nature of the debate, and the lack of facts underlying "thumbsucker articles" about the internal tensions within the administration on the intelligence front. He wants all to know everything is fine between him and "Mickey", as he repeatedly called the nominee.
It will be left to Arlen Specter, chairman of the Senate Justice Committee, to concentrate on the eavesdropping issue, and on the general's understanding of constitutional rights.
(photo: sculpture by Cai Gou Qiang, realized with objects confiscated at national airports after 9/11)