Ex-spy tapped to lead the CIA

WASHINGTON — President Bush's choice of Porter Goss, a Republican congressman and one-time spy, on Tuesday to lead the CIA was praised by members of Utah's congressional delegation.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who blasted Democrats for opposing Bush's pick, called Goss "uniquely qualified," adding that "with Porter Goss's experience, the administration and the American public will get a steady leader in a demanding and difficult time."

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, welcomed Goss' "wealth of knowledge," according to his spokeswoman, Megan Riding. She said Cannon has been pushing for several months for his colleague from Florida to lead the troubled agency.

"It's something he supports wholeheartedly," Riding said of the nomination. "He's actually good friends with him. . . . He knows him very well and has high regard and high respect for him."

The nomination comes at a time when the federal agency is struggling to repair its tarnished reputation and confront new terror threats and the uncertainty of a massive intelligence reorganization.

"He knows the CIA inside and out," Bush said of Goss, who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and served as a clandestine CIA officer in the 1960s in Central America and Western Europe. "He's the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation's history."

Twelve weeks before the presidential election, senior Democrats complained Bush had turned to a partisan politician to fill what nominally is a nonpolitical position. Bush also was accused of trying to change the subject on a day when more than 100 House Democrats urged the president to call a special session of Congress to deal with intelligence changes proposed by the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The selection of a politician — any politician from either party — is a mistake," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. "Having independent, objective intelligence going to the president and the Congress is fundamental to America's national security."

Hatch was dismayed that some Democrats have lined up against Goss, saying it is "grossly unfair to declare opposition without the benefit of hearings." It is fair, he said, to use the nomination to continue the ongoing debate over reforms to the intelligence community, but "playing politics with rational security demonstrates an egregious lack of seriousness."