Update 4: Analysis: Both Sides Critical of Bush Pick

Associated Press 05-09-06

By TOM RAUM

Once again, President Bush may have misjudged the extent of GOP resistance to one of his decisions. His nomination of a four-star general to serve as CIA director has drawn complaints from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike.

The administration's shake-up, under way since late March, was expected to improve White House dealings with Congress. Yet Bush's selection of Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden to head the troubled spy agency, three days after he announced the resignation of Porter Goss, seems to have caught some top Republicans by surprise.

That includes Rep.Pete Hoekstra of Michigan, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who said Hayden "is the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Bush defended his choice against such criticism, saying Hayden was "the right man to lead the CIA at this critical moment in our nation's history." And most top Republicans voiced support for the nomination.

But grumbling in some GOP quarters seemed likely to persist, fueled in part by Republican concern over Bush's declining approval ratings.

Those ratings - at 33 percent in a recent AP-Ipsos poll, the lowest of his presidency - have emboldened Republicans to speak out when they don't agree with the president, something that didn't happen during Bush's first term.

Congressional Republicans have been battered by a string of White House woes.

These include the fumbled handling of Hurricane Katrina; unhappiness about Iraq; opposition to the now-abandoned Dubai ports deal; the failed nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court; Bush's inability to achieve the centerpiece of his domestic agenda, an overhaul of Social Security, and the uproar over a secret eavesdropping program in the war on terrorism.

The fact that Hayden oversaw the surveillance program as director of the National Security Agency only keeps the controversy alive, with questions over it likely to figure prominently at his Senate confirmation hearings. He headed the NSA from 1999-2005.

"If he interprets the law as he appears to be interpreting it, I think it's bad for the country to have the chief of intelligence having telephones in the United States monitored without somebody else approving it," said retired Adm. Stansfield Turner, who was CIA chief during the Carter administration.

Otherwise, Turner characterized Hayden as "very qualified and very capable" and said he personally has no problems with giving the civilian job to an active military officer.

Turner was an admiral when he headed the CIA, a fact administration officials pointed to on Monday in defense of Bush's choice.

Still, with public support for the war in Iraq eroding and the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld moving more and more into intelligence- gathering activities, the naming of an active four-star general raised concerns in Congress and with civil-liberties groups.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, suggested Hayden consider resigning from the Air Force and "put to rest questions about whether an active duty military officer should lead the CIA at this time."

National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, who oversees the CIA and 15 other spy agencies, said Hayden had no such plans and called him "a very, very independent-minded" individual who wouldn't bow to any Pentagon pressure.

The criticism of Bush's CIA choice, at least initially, did not appear deep enough to put Hayden's confirmation chances in serious jeopardy. But it seemed certain to yield contentious confirmation hearings - and likely to widen the rift between the White House and some members of his own party on Capitol Hill.

"It's another example of how the president's perception of things conflicts even with some of the leading Republicans in Congress," said Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University.

Outgoing White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush aides had reached out to members of Congress over the weekend about Hayden's qualifications, and were continuing to do so. He would not comment on whether the administration was taken by surprise at the skepticism being voiced. "We're confident he's going to have strong support," McClellan said.

If confirmed, Hayden faces an even more daunting challenge in trying to revive the embattled agency.

"He's got a massive human problem. People are demoralized. People are leaving the agency," said James Lewis, a former career diplomat familiar with intelligence issues who is now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Hayden is not exactly a new face to Congress. He was confirmed unanimously by the Senate for his present post as Negroponte's deputy.

"Despite the president's statements that he wants to bring fresh ideas and better management to the administration, the president just keeps the same crowd around him and switches their job titles," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.