Porter Goss

"He knows the CIA inside and out," Bush said of Goss, who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and served as a clandestine CIA officer in the 1960s in Central America and Western Europe. "He's the right man to lead this important agency at this critical moment in our nation's history."

Twelve weeks before the presidential election, senior Democrats complained Bush had turned to a partisan politician to fill what nominally is a non-political position.

More broadly the nomination reinforced Bush's efforts to keep the nation focused on the war on terrorism, his strongest suit in his battle for re-election in Nov. 2 voting.

The Japan Times Weekly: Aug. 21, 2004
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