RUSH: It wasn’t long, of course, the Democrats have been lying in wait for whoever Bush would nominate to head up the CIA. The press started spinning for the Democrats as soon as the choice of Porter Goss was made. This is ABC News today. After Bush made his announcement, Diane Sawyer asked reporter John Cochran, “Do they expect a big battle on this confirmation up at the hill and how did they decide to go ahead and do this right now before the election?”
COCHRAN: This is a real shock. Just last month, the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, a Republican, Pat Roberts, said, “Porter Goss had no chance of being nominated.” He said it would be a big mistake because the Democrats were against him. Roberts said the last thing that we want is in a presidential election year to have a confirmation fight on Capitol Hill. That is exactly what the president has chosen. What the White House is hoping is that the Democrats will suddenly say, “Wait a minute, if we oppose this guy at a time when the nation is engaged in a war on terrorism, we may look too partisan if we oppose the president’s choice to be director of the CIA. Maybe it’s better just to go along with his choice and if John Kerry is elected, he’ll name his own man.” That’s what they’re hoping here anyway.
RUSH: I don’t know that they’re hoping that. You know what I think is going on? I think the president is actually trying to get the CIA headed up by somebody qualified. What is so outside the realm of possibility, ABC, that the president’s doing what’s right and in the best interests of the country? You list all the political pratfalls or pitfalls, and yet the president goes ahead and runs the risk, maybe he’s got a higher reason. Maybe the president isn’t playing politics with this. Maybe the president really thinks this guy is qualified. Maybe the president really thinks this guy is needed. This guy is a former CIA agent, folks. This guy is from Yale, and I talked to Mr. Buckley as you know and interviewed him about his 
autobiography, and he was recruited for the CIA at Yale and spent some time down in Mexico. Porter Goss has exquisite credentials. For a guy like Goss to get dragged into some partisan shoot-out is, I think, indicative of the fact that there’s nobody, as far as the left is concerned, nobody is acceptable on the right to do anything at any time about anything. And if there’s a political fight here, I would disagree with Cochran on this. I would suggest to you the White House would welcome a political fight, would welcome the Democrats raising hell about this fine guy, raise hell about a political appointment, trying to make the CIA a political position. Let the Democrats go ahead. They’re already stepping in it every day.
The Kerry campaign’s imploding, and they don’t even know it. Let these guys continue to make total jerks of themselves, if that’s the truth. But I think the president is actually just saying, look, I’m the one guy in this government that appears to be taking this threat seriously. We just got a 9/11 commission report which just reamed the CIA up one wall and down the other. The president’s responsibility is to get these things fixed. This is the guy he’s chosen. Why can’t it be that he’s actually acting in the best interests of the country according to the oath of office that he swore to uphold? Notice how that is not even considered as a factor. Here is Kate Snow, ABC News. She’s the noted expert on intelligence issues, I guess. I don’t even know who she is. But Diane Sawyer turned to her. So your thoughts on the nomination this morning, Kate?
SNOW: I would echo what John just said, Diane. This is something that people for weeks have been telling me would never happen. I’ve had numerous Democrats and Republicans say, you know, this is something that they early on thought might happen, that Porter Goss might get chosen, but then as things went on, people were saying he’s too partisan, he’s too divisive, he’s got a history, he’s supported President Bush and said things in public that were very partisan in the view of Democrats.
RUSH: So what? He’s a Republican! This is a partisan country. There is partisanship. Republicans oppose Democrats and vice-versa. But Porter Goss, my gosh, he’s the kind of guy you want at the CIA. When he walks in a room, nobody notices. And I don’t mean that he’s dull or anything; he doesn’t make waves. So he supports the president. For crying out loud, all the Democrats in the Congress supported Clinton. I mean, let ’em. I think these reporters have all been sandbagged. I think they were played fools and they fell for it. “This will never happen, this will never happen.”
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: As to Porter Goss, a couple more thoughts here. I wonder if John Kerry will take time off from his campaign to sit in on hearings, confirmation hearings and perhaps vote on Porter Goss. And I wonder if John Edwards, he’s on the intelligence oversight committee, I wonder if he will leave the train, leave the campaign, and one of these two guys will come back for the confirmation hearings of Porter Goss and actually participate and maybe vote? I wonder if that will happen?
I’m saw for Chuck Schumer on CNN today. I don’t know what he said, but I’m waiting for Chuck Schumer to say that Porter Goss is not qualified because he doesn’t represent mainstream intelligence. You know, Schumer always says no judge is good because he doesn’t represent mainstream values. And how long before Howard Dean charges that the Porter Goss nomination is just a distraction to slow the momentum of Kerry and Edwards? He’ll ask, “Why did the president announce it today? He could have announced it yesterday, two weeks ago, or he could announced it a month ago. Why did he announce it today?” Howard Dean will probably ask.
END TRANSCRIPT
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