Obama needs to drop Hayden like a hot rock

by Jay McDonough

Oh jeez, please let this be wrong:  US News reported yesterday President-elect Barack Obama is considering asking CIA Director Mike Hayden to stay on for a while.  Hayden's fans argue there should be continuity in the critical intelligence function, Hayden was just following orders, and the reported detainee abuse occurred prior to Hayden's tenure.  Those arguments, however, only paint half the picture.  

There are two big issues; illegal warrantless wiretapping and torture.  From Glenn Greenwald:

If, less than 3 years later, Obama chooses as his CIA Director the very same Michael Hayden -- who, during his confirmation hearing, justified Bush's illegal NSA spying and said how proud he was to help implement it [to say nothing of his (at best) equivocations on torture] -- then it should be quite . . . let us, for the moment, say "interesting" . . . to watch him and his most loyal supporters explain and justify that.

Greenwald explains why the rumor is dubious:

In May, 2006, Barack Obama voted against confirming Gen. Hayden as CIA Director. Obama was one of only 15 Senators to oppose Hayden.  In his speech on the Senate floor explaining his vote, Obama emphasized Hayden's role as Bush's NSA Director in implementing and overseeing Bush's illegal warrantless surveillance programs -- programs Obama has repeatedly decried as an assault on the rule of law. 

In fact, Obama, while acknowledging in his speech that Hayden was "qualified," described Hayden -- accurately -- "as the architect and chief defender of a program of wiretapping and collection of phone records outside of FISA oversight."  Obama said his vote against Hayden's confirmation was necessary "to send a signal to this Administration that even in these circumstances President Bush is not above the law" and "in the hope that [Hayden] will be more humble before the great weight of responsibility that he has, not only to protect our lives, but to protect our democracy."

Gen. Hayden is an unacceptable choice to lead the CIA in an Obama Administration.  Barack Obama's promise is to abide by the rule of law and condemn the Bush Administrations contempt for the same.  Gen. Hayden's continued stewardship fo the CIA would send a clear signal Mr. Obama is not serious about his commitment.

Comments

[Kenneth Anderson]

I don't think we should be too surprised at this point if Obama decides to walk back from his previous position on Hayden. The NSA program has proven more robust than Obama, and his walk back on telecom immunity would indicate that concerns over the program are not a high priority.

What will decide a potential Hayden reappointment will be how much howling this trial balloon generates. We saw this pattern with the Larry Summers as SecTreas balloon and Obama balked, placing Summers instead as National Economic Advisor, where I am sure Summers will be able to do at least as much damage as he could as Treasury Secretary.

[Jay McDonough]

I'm afraid you may be right with respect to telecom immunity. But the other issue - torture - may be more problematic for Obama. He, as recently as a week ago, said torture will be unacceptable in his term. Given Hayden's statements on torture, there doesn't seem like much middle ground exists between the two.

[anderson]

Well, I do hope so.