My initial instinct was in fact to shout, "Hoooo!"
Is that an owls "Hoooo" or a Thundercats "Hoooo"?
Thundercats, I think? Rhymes with "Noooooo!"
The point being, though this was an entirely sincere gloating cheer reaction, it is also appropriate in a humorously inappropriate way!
Kallenbrecher: In Germany, we measure it in punchlines per minute. In Britain, they measure it in punchlines per fortnight. (laughs loudly)Kunz: (also laughing) See, for example, if we Germans make a joke, we already start laughing in the middle of the sentence. This saves valuable time, which we can then use for explaining the joke. For example, in this case …
I'm doing a little inner dance of shadenfreude.
So you're saying he was embroiled in a horse-fucking scandal?
From the article:
"He has led ably," Bush said, Goss at his side. "He has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives."
You'd think people would stop calling them "5 year plans" by now. Too much baggage.
My impression has been that middle-level people at the CIA wanted to nail him. If I'm right about that, maybe having achieved their primary objective, they won't release to the public what they had over him.
Or, maybe we'll get a nice juicy Watergategate.
No, he's in fact using the historical term. By "increase the analysts and operatives," he means "destabilize the nation's intelligence apparatus."
Isn't "he has a five-year plan" a really bizarre thing to say about a person who is leaving his office immediately? Five-year plans take a while to implement. Maybe Bush got his nominating-Porter and accepting-Porter's-resignation speeches mixed up in the drawer where he keeps such things.
middle-level people at the CIA wanted to nail him
Oh, you're absolutely right about that. Goss was put in there to try and stamp out the brewing revolt between the career CIA guys and the White House. There's a lesson in all of this: don't fuck with the CIA.
I'm doing a little inner dance of shadenfreude.
Oh, let it out.
Off-topic: Does anyone know of a good flight tracker website? My sister's flight's airline's website isn't working correctly and the other flight tracker sites I've checked only tell me the flight schedule.
http://www.flightarrivals.com/ usually has pretty accurate info.
My favorite part (and an indicator that more than Goss were caught with their pants down) was when Bush fell back reflexively on the old "we've got to win the war on terror" line.
Goss is departing. We've got to win the war on terror! So, what, is he the first victory in that regard? How on earth do those two sentiments scan together?
Oh, it's a good day. I am currently fantasizing that the reason this couldn't wait until the normal Friday afternoon garbage delivery - say, 5:45, too late for the nightly newscasts to pick it up and long after the talking heads have hit the back nine - is that something major is going down and they had to get him out the door now now now.
eb, I have the Mac flight tracker app on my computer, if you email me the flight number I'll look it up.
I cHOrtled. I'm not sorry to see him gPROSTITUTE.
Hmm, flightarrivals.com also says "check with airline."
But I just found it's one of those flights with multiple flight numbers since it's operated by one carrier with a contract with another. And the other airline's website gives an estimated arrival time. So I guess that's all I need.
20 -- they're pulling you into their web...
Maybe the result of this string of scandals will be legalized prostitution -- you know, an "Only Nixon can go to China" type of thing.
The more likely result is legalized bribery.
I'm rooting for a total abandonment of the rule of law. Oh, wait...
people at the CIA wanted to nail him
don't fuck with the CIA
Since the current rumor is that it's gay hookers (supposedly Duke Cunningham has admitted to homosexual activities?), you need to choose your words more precisely. The #3 guy who Goss hired said in his statement that he hadn't seen any "female prostitutes" at the parties. Why the qualifier on prostitutes?
Oh, if Jeff Gannon is involved in any way in this, I will be giggling for a week.
The CIA has its own J. Edgar Hoover!
Does that mean that this number three guy that Goss brought in from out of nowhere is Clyde Tolson?
Oh great -- now the gay subculture in the CIA is going to be scapegoated for the "intelligence failures" before Iraq.
TPMMuckraker and War and Piece are saying things other than gay hookers (though at least some of them are involved in the same Wilkes-Cunningham-Foggo-etc. nexus as the hookers).
supposedly Duke Cunningham has admitted to homosexual activities?
The way I have read it, he commented off-the-record to Elizabeth Birch (former head of the HRC), or to someone who told her, that he had "loved men," first when he was in Vietnam and then later when he was back States-side. I don't recall the quote or paraphrase attributed to Cunningham in that version of events, but he indicated quite clearly that he did not mean brotherly love, he meant humpin' love. Birch later brought it up in public, and it was reported in the Washington Blade.
SP, where'd you read that the current rumor is gay prostitutes?
Seriously, this just gets better and better.
The more likely result is legalized bribery.
I think the Republicans regard bribes as "speech" protected by the First Amendment. They don't, however, regard criticism of Republican politicians and their appointees as protected speech.
Rob McMP, see Sadly, No! passim and The Poor Man.
(I myself don't think gay hookers are necessary to explain this. But they sure would make it fun.)
Nooo! I don't want it to be gay prostitutes. Then the Right can more easily distance themselves from him and just paint it as an issue of "See, we told you Teh Gays are security risks. This justifies kicking them out of the military and all of the translators we purged from the intelligence agencies."
Can't we come back with a shrewd "Nuh-uh! It's Teh Closeted Gays that are security risks, and that's all Republicans. No one's blackmailing Barney Frank."
Overheard from two lawyers walking past my office: "Did you hear something about transvestites?"
As much as I'd love a big gay hooker scandal, I can't really see it coming to that. I mean, even if there were hookers (even big gay ones) it wouldn't make the mainstream media. They'll say Goss resigned because he alienated his subordinates. And then what? W. appoints another neocon stooge, and business continues as usual.
I had trouble getting excited about calls for Rumsfeld to resign for the same reason. Will this really help bring down the corrupt machine that is stripping our liberties and killing our children?
Gavin at Sadly, No! writes:
If Boehner comes into this, pls. call police to remove my joyous grinning corpse, thk. you
This sex scandal may go deeper than Boehner. We could have a veritable Dick Armey involved in this.
I'm more worried about our ability to gather intel. It can't be good if the analysts are busy fighting the leadership.
That was happening anyway -- Goss was brought in to purge the CIA of people who wouldn't make stuff up insufficiently Republican people.
I'm with LB. Big gay hookers would be an opening for the Right, yes, but when it's their own stars that are seeing the BGH's, surely that becomes a teachable moment, right? Or am I just drinking the Happy Sunshine Kool-Aid?
And could Patrick Kennedy ask for better cover? Normally an intoxicated Kennedy story would be news for at least a week or so.
Thanks, Porter. You made everyone's Friday a little bit more bearable.
I think there's probably some number g of Republicans having sex with male prostitutes that gets us past Becks's worry and into the Robust/LB scenario.
g has to be more than 3, I'd guess... 5?
My current explanation fo almost every news item:
"This is preparation for the imminent attack on Iran."
but more likely hookers.
Given the current context, I have no idea what to make of Bill Kristol's choice of words:
"Something that popped this week and that caused this sudden event this Friday."
41: In Boston. Kennedy's crash on drugs is front-page news.
At Daily Kos, courtjester speculates that the Republican prostitution ring was of the gay variety. Gavin at Sadly, No! is doing the same. I am with LB, Weiner, and RMcMP on the fun potential of this.
As Larry Johnson pointed out, Mary McCarthy was quite certainly not involved in the black sites ops, as most of the press surmised. She was, on the other hand, working for the Inspector General, the internal CIA watchdog. She was also notoriously difficult to deal with, extraordinarily by-the-book, and not the type to pull out of an investigation because it is inconvenient to her superiors. Am I the only one thinking MOM's firing and PoGo's resignation are related?
OT: Uighurs released to Albania (link to a shortering of Hilzoy).
Why, come to think of it, I actually know a guy who used to turn tricks in DC, and had a bunch of politicians and lobbyists as clients. But this was five or six years ago.
I don't really have it filed under person-involved-in-potential- scandal, so much reports of some kind of intervention by friends of his, trying to get him off drugs and out of hustling.
NYT: 'FBI agents... have interviewed women who work for escort services, said a lawyer involved in the investigation." So we may not have to worry about "It's Teh Gheys!"
But I want it to be Teh Gheys so I can watch the Republicans' (I started to type "Repubicans" -- Freudian slip) heads explode.