[IrishRainy]

Just got the book yesterday at a book fair where I work. It was on clearance too, so I snapped it up.

One surprising fact that sickened me as I read it was that George Tenet was originally a lobbyist, then a congressional staffer -- Dumbocrat I might add -- prior to being named staff director of the Select Committee's oversight panel in 1988.

In 1995, The Toon named him deputy director of the CIA despite never having received training as a professional intelligence officer.

Maybe that's SOP, but I had always just assumed he had come up through the ranks and knew SOMETHING about intelligence gathering. Instead, it sounds like he took a class at the Learning Annex or something -- "Learn How To Be A Spy in 2 Weeks!"

Maybe that's part of the problem -- we have too many bureaucrats in key decision-making positions, and it's obviously not working too well.

[leadpenny]

Woolsey was a Rhodes Scolar before Clinton and served in the Carter Administration (Navy). Clinton chose him as his DCI and wouldn't talk to him. When Woolsey left in disgust (eventually working to elect Dole) Clinton almost had to order Deutsch from DOD to go take the job. He was a miserable failure and got caught up in taking classified material home with him. When he left, Tenet was about the only person inside the Beltway remotely qualified and willing to take the job.