By Steve Clemons

In this statement, which I received from a friend on the Senate Republican Policy Committee, Porter Goss states: As the flagship component

I am convinced that if Chris Nelson ever took his very-expensive-but-worth-every-penny Nelson Report on line as a blog, all of the rest of us — including the biggies — would be out of business.

Josh Marshall poses a question regarding Perle’s comments to me last October 2002.

A friend just forwarded me the lyrics to a Steve Earle song, called “Rich Man’s War.” The question my friend poses is whether there is a backlash brewing in Red States. I’m not sure, but this song sounds like it’s tapped into a genuine Jacksonian, Fuck-Yeah American current.

This just in from UPI’s Intelligence Watch, authored by John C.K. Daly and Martin Sieff: Turmoil rocks politicized Mossad The CIA is not the only major intelligence agency rocked by resignations of senior veteran officials and charges of politicization.

I have had an interesting exchange with some folks these last several days about the scramble of so many in town for new posts in G.W. Bush’s second term.

ON THE ONGOING CONVULSIONS AT THE CIA, Douglas Jehl writes: Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to “support the administration and its policies in our work,” a copy of an internal memorandum shows.

THIS CIA STUFF REALLY DOES MATTER. Intelligence is by definition a complicated business, but applying a political litmus test to those engaged in intelligence estimates and operations is extremely dangerous for the country.

CYNTHIA WEBB ASKS WHETHER TELECOM IS BACK? Well, maybe for the oligopolistic Baby Bells, but the innovative technology players are struggling hard to get us the infrastructure that America’s so-called “information age” needs but doesn’t yet have. The news on broadband and high-speed, big information pipe connectivity is mixed.

THE NELSON REPORT, Chris Nelson’s intriguing daily report on everything interesting in Washington, is worth reprinting in part today. He sent this before the news that Condi Rice gets Powell’s perch, but the line-up that Chris has linked to this State Department decision is fascinating.