Michael Hayden ........ ?

Is he a true believer/hyperpatriot in the mission of our intelligence service (kinda the same mindset as the former OSS guys who were the first leaders of the CIA) or a Right Wing Ideologue?

I don't know and can't even speculate. As an Air Force general, he's more likely to be one of the true believer types instead of a partisan ideologue. Was he anointed by Cheney to head the CIA because he was loyal or because he was competent or because he was ..... is ..... a true believer? Air Force (and particularly SAC) officers who went up the ladder during the Cold War tended to be of a type ..... the 'monastic warrior monk' prepared to unquestioningly drop nukes on the word of another.

Yeah, we all got (justifiably) pissed off at him when, as NSA head, he did all that electronic spying. But such activity is at least as likely to have been done by a true believer for whom the end justifies the means and a partisan ideologue most interested in employing knowledge in the consolidation of power.

The recent news about a CIA 'secrets dump' would seem to be the kind of thing a true believer would do in retaliation to a government that abused the intelligence service than it does an action of an ideologue.

Anyway .... what do you think?

Why now?????

If he's a true believer, then it is more of the same. Like the CIA starting the shitstorm after Plame was outed.

If he's an ideologue, then its time to start shitting in our britches.

this release of the uber-duper-super secret CIA files about itself can be waved around by the RW noise machine as evidence that Bush is for good clean transparent government. Nevermind that the report doesn't cover the Bush years. Nevermind the likelihood that the elder Bush and several generations of CIA Directors have been scouring and sanitizing that report deleting information prejudicial to them or their political allies since its initial creation.

But the information that he was Cheney's pick, if true, by itself makes him untrustworthy. I don't see Cheney putting someone at the top of CIA unless that person gave him the right vibe. Which is the wrong vibe, if you care about democracy and legitimate government. Hayden violated the Constitution in bulk quantity during his time at NSA under Bush--you don't need a trial to know that since Bush admitted to warrantless wiretapping.

I just always felt everything of moment for the last 6+ years has been Cheney with his hand up Bush ass, making the mouth move.