It's official. Firedoglake's ReddHedd passes along that ABC's George Stephanopoulos just reported that Michael Hayden will indeed be named the new CIA director nominee tomorrow. Interesting nomination hearings, to be sure.

Update: And apparently Congress is not sure it likes this choice. Bloomberg, "House Intelligence chairman opposes Hayden as next CIA chief."

``I've got a lot of respect for Mike Hayden, and he's done a good job, but I do believe he's the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time,'' said U.S. Representative Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican. ``We should not have a military person leading a civilian agency at this time.'' [...]

``Putting a general in charge, regardless of how good Mike is, is going to send the wrong signal through the agency here in Washington and also to our agents around the world,'' he said.

Hear that, Josh Bolten?

Apparently Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Saxby Chambliss are expressing similar reservations on the other shows. Will be interested to hear what Sen. Pat Roberts says about it on Late Edition today. Update II: He says that perhaps a solution would be if Hayden retires from the military. More from Michael Levi.

Posted by Laura at May 7, 2006 10:45 AM