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Well, if they're only half as mean to Kerry as they were to Clinton, it's a step in the right direction. Then again, it's Tom Delay and Grover Norquist we're talking about here. They aren't exactly the principled statesmen this country deserves. This is not to say that the Republican party as a whole isn't good, or that there aren't any good individuals in there, but that many of its leaders are power hungry people.
It's a gamut on both sides. For every Delay, there's a John McCain. For every Daschle, there's a Wellstone.
Now, back to the topic.
I wouldn't count Tenet among the "evil Bush administration folk" that many people on my side of the aisle would like to snub. He was a Clinton appointee, but not a partisan for either side. In this case, not having a side seems to have hurt him a bit. CIA directors are supposed to be non-partisan, and he was, but non-partisan leaders in Washington don't have a team backing them up. I'm not sure we'll ever know why Tenet resigned. He might have been forced out, though I doubt that. There was no scandal for him to take the fall for, and it doesn't seem to me that he's a casualty of anything. Sure, some inaccurate intelligence got out of the CIA, but the CIA estimates were more accurate than the ones put out by the White House.
In my mind, Tenet should have resigned when it became apparent that the CIA was nothing more than a tool for promoting White House policy. When CIA estimates didn't support what the WH wanted to do, either the CIA was pressured to revise the estimates, or other sources were used. In my mind, it's unacceptable to treat the intelligence community like that. They should never have to choose between reporting what they feel is accurate, and skewing their reports to pacify the White House.
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