Ace of Spades HQ

« ISM Jobs Report: *tuk tuk tuk tuk* | Main | Report: Hussein Used Same Money-Launderers as Osama Bin Ladin »

June 03, 2004

Tenet's Out; Rudy Can't Fail?

Conservatives have been calling for his head for years.

I've never been on that bandwagon, for several reasons. For one, I doubt that simply sacking the boss will actually change the nature of a huge institution. And the CIA's failures, while of course partly due to Tenet, are mainly due to institutional problems and, frankly, everyone working there. When an NFL team performs poorly, sure, the coach gets sacked more often than not; but let's face it, the coach may be important, but player performance has something to do with losing too.

Another reason I was never super big on firing Tenet: I assumed Bush had reasons for keeping him on. Obviously, Bush no longer has the same level of trust in Tenet now (hence the sacking), so I guess I'm happy to see him go.

I'm curious as to the reasons for this. Not as curious as the lefty bloggers like Joshua Micah Marshall, who are undoubtedly writing novel-length conspiracy theories linking the sacking to Valerie Plame.

Tenet was, I think, a weak director. I think the CIA is a very politicized institution, and I think Tenet wasn't strong enough to push back against the Clintonistas who, for example, claim with an evangelist's passion that there was "no connection" between Saddam and Al Qaeda, despite the mountain of evidence proving beyond any doubt that there was, at the very least, some "connection."

So I'm looking for a strong director, one with credibility with the public, one with popularity with the public, a man with the balls to reform the Agency, a man who's tough enough to tell the Clintonistas that we're going to have a dispassionate analysis about The Connection whether they like it or not.

In other words, I'm looking for Rudy Guiliani.

I don't think this is necessarily a pipe dream. While Rudy has been upfront about his desire to make a pile of money, he undoubtedly also wants to serve America in the fight against terrorism. And DCI isn't some minor posting. He could walk in and take command of an incredibly important institution and change it for the better.

It would be like being Mayor of a Shadow City. And we know Rudy likes being Mayor.

And we all know Rudy wants to be President. And we all know his liberal social positions are a near bar to his getting the nomination from the Republican Party.

He needs to do something big -- something even bigger than his steadfast performance on 9-11 -- to overcome the conservative hesitancy about him.

Becoming a major player in the war on terror and reforming yet another unreformable, sprawling mess could certainly be that "something big."

posted by Ace at 03:32 PM

Comments

Yeah, the libs are all donning their tinfoil hats on this one. Here's a comment from another website I look at:

"I was wondering the same thing...my husband and I were discussing this, and I really don't think that Bush would have chosen for Tenet to leave, and especially not now. Perhaps Tenet has just had a snootful of being the fall guy, and he's tired of Bush's "I-Can-Do-No-Wrong-Because-I-Can-Blame-Everything-On-Someone-Else-Philosophy"?!?! I hope and pray that Tenet has a tell-all book already written that can hit the stands right about the middle of October... **rubbing hands gleefully** If anyone knows where the bodies are buried, it's Tenet!"

Rudy would be an interesting choice. For some reason, I'm picturing Mr. Burns rubbing his hands together, saying, "Excellent."

Posted by: Scout on June 3, 2004 04:02 PM

Just to clarify that wasn't MY nutty comment I was quoting. It was made by a far-far-FAR-leftist.

Posted by: Scout on June 3, 2004 04:03 PM

Rudy certainly seems to be the most popular candidate in the blogosphere for what Cori Dauber calls "body's not cold award", and, being a New Yorker, he's got my vote. And those who like the idea of Rudy as DCI do so for the same reason you do Ace: Balls. Big ones.

As far as who will become the permanent DCI, I guess it all comes down to the outsider/insider issue and George Bush winning the election. I can't see the Bush Administration seeking confirmation this close to the election.

Unless, of course, the the President's choice for DCI is a slam-dunk.

Posted by: Robert on June 3, 2004 04:15 PM

But I think Rudy would be a slam-dunk. How many Democrats would have the cojones to vote against him?

They'd risk tipping off the public that they are nothing but partisans whose chief interest is not in protecting America but rather in weakening Bush.

If a highly-competent, popular, credible man agrees to take such a difficult job, you say Thank You. You don't attempt to derail his appointment.

Unless you're not particularly interested in having a highly-competent, popular, and credible man in the post.

Posted by: ace on June 3, 2004 04:38 PM

Ace, great call on Rudy. He would be a total ball-buster choice.

Posted by: David on June 3, 2004 04:58 PM

Who'd risk tipping off the public, ace? It's been my experience that the fringe -- on EITHER side of the political spectrum -- are the most vocal. I can't *envision* it, but I guess there *might* be a semi-conservative Democrat who might have some Maalox moments when thinking about this issue, but the radical lefties that I see around here don't give a rat's ass about what my conservative honkiness thinks.

BTW, I'm going to be sorely disappointed if Rudy's not nominated, now. I think he'd be perfect.

Posted by: Emma on June 3, 2004 05:35 PM

I've always thought the main problem with getting Rudy into politics again was the lack of an appropriate venue for him. He is a large fish. He requires a large fishbowl.

I always sort of doubted that he'd run for Senator, because being a Senator is a big step down from being the executive of the largest metropolis in America.

Vice President is bullshit, too. Cheney's made the post a powerful one, but there's no guarantee that another Bush VP would have the same power. It would be pretty unlikely.

So I've always thought that the only real possibilities for Guiliani in bigger politics were 1) President 2) Governor of New York 3) Head of the FBI 4) Attorney General or 5) Head of the CIA. I guess now that DHS is a cabinet-level position that would be big enough for him, too, but I don't know about that job. It seems sort of ill-defined and ungainly.

Obviously, there aren't openings for most of those jobs at the moment. (And I think AG might even be beneath him.)

DCI seems perfect for him. It's a huge job. It's not the sort of one that would diminish him.

Posted by: ace on June 3, 2004 05:58 PM

I think Tom Ridge's stature has been diminished by the bureaucratic DHS job.

I can't see that happening with Rudy as DCI.

For one thing, there's the mystery of it. There are liberals who are still shrieking about the fact that George Bush the elder was DCI in the seventies.

Posted by: ace on June 3, 2004 06:01 PM

Beat ya to the punch on this scoop, Ace.

I love the idea. Anyone who can clean house in NYC can handle the CIA. "If you can make it there, you'll make it a-nee-where..."

Posted by: Aaron's Rantblog on June 4, 2004 02:48 AM

Unless, of course, the the President's choice for DCI is a slam-dunk.

I'm with you 100% on this one ace.

I was taking a jab at Tenet by saying Rudy's confirmation would be a slam dunk.

Sarcasm doesn't always work on comment boards.

Posted by: robert on June 4, 2004 02:54 AM

Amazon.com Widgets

Now Available!
The Deplorable Gourmet
A Horde-sourced Cookbook
[All profits go to charity]

Top Headlines

TJM talks John Boorman, director of Excalibur

Good rickroll

What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.

The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

Finish the job, Mr. President!
Melanie Phillips lays out the case for the total destruction of the Iranian government and armed forces. [CBD]

TJM acts like he knows anything about John Wick and screenwriting. It's embarrassing, really.

Podcast: Sefton and CBD talk about how would a peace treaty with Iran work, Democrats defending murderers and rapists, The GOP vs. Dem bench for 2028, composting bodies? And more!

Oh, I forgot to mention this quote from Pete Hegseth, reported by Roger Kimball: "We are sharing the ocean with the Iranian Navy. We're giving them the bottom half."

Batman fires The Batman
Batman is disgusted by the Joachim Phoenix version of Joker
Batman tries to fire Superman
Batman is still workshopping his Bat-Voice

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Red Leather Suit and Sweatband Edition
And I was here to please
I'm even on knees
Makin' love to whoever I please
I gotta do it my way
Or no way at all

Tomorrow is March 25th, "Tolkien Reading Day," because March 25th is the day when the Ring is destroyed in the book. I think I'm going to start the Hobbit tomorrow and read all four books this time.
The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)

Sec. Army recognizes ODU Army ROTC cadets for their bravery and sacrifice in private ceremony
[Hat Tip: Diogenes] [CBD]

TJM gives you a brief tour of his movie collection.

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click
One day I'm gonna write a poem in a letter
One day I'm gonna get that faculty together
Remember that everybody has to wait in line
Oh, [Song Title], look out world, oh, you know I've got mine

US decimation of Iran's ICBM forces is due to Space Force's instant detection of launches -- and the launchers' hiding places -- and rapid counter-attack via missiles
AI is doing a lot of the work in analyzing images to find the exact hiding place of the launchers. Counter-strikes are now coming in four hours after a launch, whereas previously it might have taken days for humans to go over the imagery and data.

Robert Mueller, Former Special Counsel Who Probed Trump, Dies

“robert mueller just died,” trump wrote in a truth social post on march 21. “good, i’m glad he’s dead. he can no longer hurt innocent people! president donald j. trump.”

TJM has thoughts on Superheros and Iconography

Canadian School Designates Cafeteria And Lunchroom As "No Food Zones" For Ramadan
Canada and the UK are neck and neck in the race to become the first western country to fall to Islam [CBD]

Chuck Norris, Action Icon and 'Walker Texas Ranger' Star, Dies at 86