A Good Choice
From everything I have been able to gather, John Negreponte looks like a great choice for national intelligence czar. Negreponte is a very seasoned public servant with nothing to prove, meaning that he might actually focus on getting the job done. I am glad that the initial response from the Dem leaders seems measured and largely positive. This is going to be a thankless job that I doubt very many people would be willing to step up for. Really, I think this is maybe the best appointment of either Bush administrations.

Right now I can see only two lines of thinking developing against Negreponte: Some are pointing out that he has no intelligence experience. As a manager who has moved around through at least three industries I feel fairly strongly that what is necessary in a good manager is that he or she be a good manager, not that they have prior experience in the detailed particulars of the field that they are entering. This is a non-starter.

The other line of attack, being developed in the diaries at Kos right now, is that Negreponte should be denied the position because he served as Ambassador to Honduras during the Contra-scandal era and “turned a blind eye to human rights abuses.” That sounds pretty weak to me.
- posted by Simon Marcus @ Thursday, February 17, 2005