What a Drunk CIA Agent Had to Say About the New CIA Director

So last night I went to a dinner party. Wine was served, and to my left was a middle-aged CIA agent (just back from VA) who had had perhaps two glasses too many (I'll give him the codename Twinkletoes).

When the subject of the Hayden nomination came up, Twinkletoes guffawed. As he poured himself another glass of Chianti, he snarked "as if Goss or Hayden are the guys who really run the CIA."

Intrigued (previously, we had been talking about the mechanics of computer-guided cars), I coquetteishly asked, "who does run the CIA?"

At that, Twinkletoes bristled and half-sobered. He just turned his head like Jack Nicholson (i.e., he led with his eyes) and stared at me silently for a few moments, then half-smiled. It was very Mission Impossible. "I thought you'd have put it together by now," he purred. "It's me, I run the CIA."

For a moment or two, though, I had almost cracked him. Realizing that I had lost my chance to scoop an intelligence leak (I'm always already thinking first of Left Behinds), I just asked him some picayune questions about what was already public. He gave a politic answer about whether or not Goss was really involved in the scandal that Eleanor Clift claims he is, and I knew I was just getting the official spin. The only other interesting revelation was a little later on when he said, "listen, it's not like Goss ever had a chance at reform. Reforming the CIA is like spotting the iceberg and trying to change course on the Titanic. Too much mass and momentum."

I take it Twinkletoes is about to retire.

>Tags: news and politics, CIA, Goss, Hayden