By Steve Clemons

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.

DANIELLE PLETKA, AEI FOREIGN & DEFENSE POLICY PROGRAMS CHIEF, will be appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs. This just hit in from a little birdie — not on the wires yet.

I AM ONE WHO BELIEVES THAT THINGS HAVE GONE SO WRONG IN IRAQ that the American “brand” is no longer seen as a legitimate deliverer of stability and democracy there.

SOME TIME AGO, I PRAISED PETE COORS AND BLASTED KEN SALAZAR because of their respective comments on the Iraq War resolution.

THIS SHORT PIECE (IN GERMAN) RAN IN BERLIN’S LARGEST DAILY, Der Tagesspiegel. The Washington Note got a nice plug. Recently, the Heinrich Boell Foundation hosted a group of German journalists here in the U.S. — and many of them seemed interested in doing more to encourage political blogging in Berlin and Brussels.

THE MOST POPULAR MEMBER OF THIS BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S CABINET has tendered his resignation. Powell’s memoirs are going to fetch a mint for him, and Democrats ought to see if there is any way at all that this guy might switch parties.