I saw that happening but figured Negroponte had Bush's cojones in a vise of some kind and was twisting the handle. The more I look at it I'm inclined to think Bush is simply politically incompetent as you say. He seems to live in the same kind of reality-insulated bubble his patrician Daddy inhabited during his "Read my lips" days.
Now I read this: "...two months after Goss was nominated, Bush asked Congress to implement a recommendation from the 9/11 commission to create an overall national intelligence director, which would oversee the CIA and 14 other intelligence agencies -- a change that diluted the authority of the CIA director."
Looks to me like Bush's foot wound was a self-inflicted gunshot. In one act of grand incompetence he not only backstabbed Goss, but ended up creating a total bureaucratic nightmare for our security apparatus. If it was bad before it's probably past the point of hopelessness now. Witness the current tape-destruction mess.
Yep, more bureaucracy is never a good answer. And when it comes to intelligence it turns what is supposed to be sharp, insightful analysis into ‘consensus building’ for the purpose of generating reports and CYA. And ‘consensus’ is a bad thing when it comes to economic or intelligence analysis. Being right is far more important than being in a consensus.