If Petraeus has a free hand, this might be a big shot in the arm to the CIA. When general officers move into civilian jobs, they tend to organize things on the efficient military staff model.
Eisenhower did so in the White House, and his administration was a quiet, well oiled machine. It only experienced problems when Ike developed severe medical problems, a heart attack and minor stroke, along with chronic Crohn’s disease.
Most who try to reform the CIA fail, because that is the wrong direction to take. Instead, it would be a better bet to reorganize them for greater efficiency, which brings about voluntary reform in its wake.
Petraeus’ most difficult problem is that the CIA is no longer “the” intelligence agency, because there are now 16 agencies, often with both cross purposes and overlapping purposes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_intelligence_community
The vote was 94-0.
Our government is just getting to big. I thought Petraeus becoming CIA director was going to be a good thing. From what some of the other posters are saying, it doesn’t sound all that great.