That would be a very odd posture for a CIA Director in an administration headed by a President who repeatedly vowed to impose the Army Field Manual on the CIA as the most effective way to end the torture regime.

Or it provides an answer to the question you posed earlier:

Why do Feinstein and Wyden sound much different on the torture issue now?

Of course it makes no sense that they would disqualify Brennan to appoint Hayden (except for the "qualified/competent" meme), but if they WERE, that might explain the backtracking by DiFi and Wyden, and would be a sign that the fix is in. The Club has already confirmed Hayden once already...

CNN is touting their new poll, which shows a 79% approval rating for Obama's handling of the transition process. Bill Schneider addresses this huge number:

"An Obama job approval rating of 79 percent -- that's the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster," said Bill Schneider, CNN's senior political analyst. "To many Americans, the Bush administration was a national disaster."

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/09/Obama.poll/index.html

Bush has indeed been a national disaster and it is clear from this poll result that many Americans understand that. Obama now must move the US away from the disastrous policies that have Bush with an approval rating more than 50 points below Obama's. I just don't see how that could be accomplished by leaving Hayden in office along with the nearly equally odious Gates. Obama is risking associating himself with the problem rather than the solution.

So far, I haven't been able to find a link to the full poll report. It would be very interesting to see if there is a separate question regarding Obama's cabinet choices and whether they have the same level of approval.

~

Before I goon, and go on, irritate YKW, shut my own Monarchs butterfly cocoon moth!

Too much Hallabaloo. And Lu Lu and Ringo are going boom boom again all day today.

Inoculation. Well, what in a Che Pasa name should a skeptical black poodle owner do?

Before dog scoops, and black-bag zip lock phooey, what was used for FICA cat dung?

Digby : Washing Whispers : `Kak- ah- who? Digby needs to adorn a fedora hat? O h/t.

People can choose to dedicate books to truth? Find a girl or boyfriend + *, write them.

Maybe someone will buy Barack O. some rum-brew and a joint to have a Bacchanalia.

It's a Bacchus drunken revelry yet? Let's hope for sobriety. But pitch fork for pup-dung.

O worry? Future White House stud gig-crew may sit in goo? Pew seats: Oval rug stomp.

Glenn,

Don't know if you're into Chomsky at all, but when he discusses the role of intellectuals in the US political establishment he points out how the methods of overweighing "qualifications" have essentially narrowed political discourse. Someone is not "qualified" unless they have a very specific degree, or worse, very specific experience (despite the actual quality of this experience, good or bad.) It's a cultural issue that prevents any kind of "change" and feeds the beastly status quo.

And as for the "now's not the time to..." line of thinking, it seems to be congruent with everything Naomi Klein has been saying recently. You're right in pointing out that we have not only the economy, but the environment as a set of problems which will need to be solved (...by whatever means?) Of course, after those are addressed (!), there's the blanket "War on Terror" that provides a perpetual crisis through which any sort of political action, no matter how extreme or contradictory, can be justified.

Obama is a federal politican, which means he is our employee. His election is the result of a popular movement and the people he surrounds himself with better get used to feeling the fire on their toes, precisely because that movement is not just about him as a leader. Just rewind to 2002-2003 to see what blind submission can lead to.

Jim White. When you shovel horse dunk in the barn you sweet. No slip.

But, maybe go buy a hanky. Wipe your sweaty eyebrow and runny nose.

No one wants to slip in your barn and fall face first in shit. Stack de shit.

If in a boat, Stack High In Turret. s.h.i.t. Or, dung gets wet:` boom boom.

Ship sinks. Ship stink. If You have a baby horse name the stud, Horse Hay?

Or:`Hay Fox Den. Den of Iniquity. Flop Sweat Den. Jim White Sweet. s.t.h.u.?

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Did I say thank you? (Especially the part about Steve Hildebrand.)

"Obama has certainly continued his lurch to the right he began (more or less) with his odious FISA vote."

i think when pelosi and Reid and the rest of the democratic party caved on FISA - singling out Obama is unfair. Obama was abandoned and stuck in the position of either toting the party line or appearing to be left of NANCY PELOSI - a position that would've hurt him in the race. Obama never LURCHED to the right - he's been there all the time - against gay marriage, against the IRAQ war but gung ho for Afghanistan, pledging fealty to israel, supporting 2nd Amendment rights, working his way to a close relationship with the military, demanding responsibility from parents, quoting scripture - all the right wing talking points neatly in a row. Obama got my vote DESPITE some of his positions - not because I thought he was the darker version of Ralph Nadar!

Actually, today I'm not going to stack it. I'm overdue to get out the drag and work it into the soil and today seems like a good day to do that...

Or, name the book latest scoop: Hayden is # Ten.

In respectable people's informed opinion. it 100%.

No qualified. Go to a dirty fox hole den. Vegetate.

All neo-cons change. They become strict vegans.

No qualities for a dog kennel sweeper roll, either.

No name a 'kid' goat: Eric_G, El Zongo, or Zeus.

Get real. Be a bit honest. Name B. O.:`Euphoric.

Oho. Ay. O snooped upon will feel safe*secure?