VERY bad sign for * for a CIA Director to resign in an Election year

[jackstraw45]

It's an extremely rare event for a senior official to resign DURING an election year. Most will leave the year before or stay on until the election is over.

SOMETHING is definitely up...family reasons don't float in this case.

[Don_G]

1. Six Months Before An Election?

Chimpy is using this as a distraction to take the heat off of him while he's in Europe.

[NNN0LHI]

5. More like 5 months before the election n/t

[StephNW4Clark]

2. Dropping off ballast

They're going to say, "It was the CIA's fault. I relied on them for intelligence. Don't blame me...look over there - new shiny object!"

Unless Tenet spills some major beans (which I'm not sure he will) I don't think this is going to work in our favor as much as some expect it will.

[lancdem]

7. But this won't save him from being implicated in Plamegate

Tenet resigning doesn't undercut the testimony of witnesses before the grand jury.

[asjr]

11. I believe Tenent knows exactly who it was that

leaked the Plame name. It may be if he resigns he can tell the commission who it is. Or was he forced to resign? Who knows? I don't believe anything that comes out of the WH. This country has been royally screwed for 3-1/2 years.

[BabsSong]

9. Steph---this is EXACTLY the reason. Fire the Dem and wash all the

blood of four years off your hands at the same time. That's why they make sure that every road leads back to CIA screw ups (how much were not CIA screw ups but the screw up of the Goon at the top who paid no attention to what was being told him???).

[chookie]

14. The NeoCons have been attacking CIA for years

Richard Perle and Wolfowitz have both been very vocal on how the CIA is a big joke that has missed the "big picture" i.e. the necessity for a prolonged war in the middle east aimed at total political transformation of the region and the establishment of unquestioned American dominance throughout the globe.

I'm not saying that Tenet's hands are clean in this -- he may have been foolish enough to try and get George and Dick the stuff they demanded to hear -- but if the CIA and Tenet take the fall for it, it represents a deliberate choice to support the NeoCons -- who were ACTUALLY the prime players in the bogus intelligence to support their agenda for war in Iraq, etc -- over an organization that at least in part had disavowed some of the information they put forth.

The last straws: 1) Bush's hiring a lawyer for the Plame case. Tenet had no choice in this matter -- he had to distance himself from this treasonous allegation. 2)Bush tapping his finger to his chin during the press conference the other day saying, "Chalabi, hmm, Chalabi, oh yes -- I knew him very slightly and may have spoken to him once in a receiving line." We all know the reality is that Chalabi was CENTRAL to Bush's ambition to go into Iraq, against all advice to the contrary. Tenet finally said -- fuck that.

He may have held out hope that Bush would choose to support traditional intelligence services over the hand-picked "special operations" intelligence of the NeoCons -- which was a choice presented to Bush with the fall of Chalabi. Bush backs the NeoCons -- and, ironically, plans to blame their gaffes on the CIA.

[lancdem]

3. I'm in total agreement

This and Bush's consulting a lawyer have to be related.

[russian33]

4. It's a rare event for a President to be a complete moron...

..but this one keep proving himself day after day

[Beetwasher]

6. While This is Big News and Serves To Knock Some Other Stories

off the front page, it's a sign of an admin. in dissaray w/ 6 months to an election. Very bad for Chimpy. This is not some ploy by the admin., this is further evidence that the admin. is immersed in utter chaos.

[jackstraw45]

8. Waiting for REAL story to leak....

Hopefully someone in the media will tell the truth about this resignation.

If anyone believes the "personal reasons" argument, I have some beautiful land to sell you......in Crawford, Texas. :)

[Hamlette]

10. I agree that resignations during election years do not happen unless

Tenet is gonna be the fall guy or he had a bellyfull in which case he'll talk. Last option is he's dying of cancer, that's the only personal reason that allows him to do this.

I wonder if this does have to do with Plame did Tenent leak the name to Bush? Tenent has to resign, Bush needs a lawyer.

[welshTerrier2]

12. All the President's Men

there was a great scene in the parking garage between Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) where Woodward says (paraphrased): "We don't exactly believe that Mitchell resigned to spend more time with his family" and Deep Throat responds: "No, but it's touching."

this is a devastating admission of bush's total failure on the "war on terrorism" and it's a devastating admission that all the intelligence bush fabricated to justify invading Iraq was a pile of lies ...

Tenet is the only the first domino ... watch these rats hop off the ship now ... Cheney is next ...

[DemonFighterLives]

13. It's Clinton's Fault

Pat Roberts says we need to rethink everything back a decade. CIA was underfunded and blah, blah.
Once you are CIA, you never leave. He either tells all or takes his pill for the administration.