Dean, Levin, and Me

Interesting thing happened on my way to my email box… earlier this morning, I’d gotten an email from Howard Dean, Chairman of the DNC, asking me to sign a petition…

…When the Senators meet to decide on Hayden’s confirmation, they must hear the voices of their constituents. We want to deliver the voices of 100,000 Americans who oppose this nomination. Will you add your name?

http://www.democrats.org/hayden

…so I went there and I signed the petition, and on that page there’s a little text box where you can add your personal comments to your signature on the petition.

Well, I commented that my senator, Carl Levin, supported Hayden’s nomination, and that he needed to tell his constituents why, particularly in light of Hayden being the man behind the program that was spying on Americans without warrants. Sounds ok, right?

Well, here’s the weird thing… just now, I got an email from Levin, explaining exactly that.

From: senator_levin[AT]levin[DOT]senate[DOT]gov
Subj: My thoughts on General Hayden’s nomination

On May 18, 2006, the Senate Intelligence Committee, of which I am a member, began its consideration of the nomination of General Michael Hayden to be the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In light of your previous correspondence, I thought you might be interested in my thoughts on General Hayden’s nomination.

The United States Constitution gives the President the authority to appoint individuals to run the various executive agencies. It also imposes the duty on the United States Senate to give its advice and consent to these nominations.

As you may know, General Hayden currently serves as the Deputy Director of National Intelligence. Prior to assuming that position in May 2005, General Hayden served as the Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and in various intelligence positions within the Department of Defense.

General Hayden has the background and credentials for the position of CIA Director, but this job requires more than an impressive resume. This nomination comes at a time when the CIA is in disarray. Its current Director, Porter Goss, has apparently been forced out, and the previous Director, George Tenet, left under a cloud after having compromised his own objectivity and independence, and that of the CIA, by misusing Iraq intelligence to support the Administration’s policy agenda. One major question I will seek to answer as I consider General Hayden’s nomination is whether he will restore analytical independence and objectivity at the CIA and speak truth to power, or whether he will shape intelligence to support Administration policy and mislead Congress and the American people, as former Director of Central Intelligence Tenet did. Another major question is General Hayden’s view on the electronic surveillance of American citizens.

The war on terrorism not only requires objective, independent intelligence analysis, it also requires us to strike a careful balance between our liberty and our security. Over the past six months, we have been engaged in a national debate about the NSA’s electronic surveillance program and the telephone records of American citizens. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I have been investigating the NSA programs and will vigorously question General Hayden about these programs during his nomination hearing.

My opening statement from General Hayden’s nomination hearing on May 18, 2006, can be found on my website at [http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=255787].

Sincerely,
Carl Levin

Now, I don’t know if that was just coincidence, or if the staff at the DNC website passed my message along to Levin, or what… but that was kind of freaky. LOL