Purge of the Unbelievers

"Republican advisers have been telling the White House to be ready for war, and many cited Miers as the wrong general. 'The White House knew they needed to get a tough street fighter -- that's what this is about,' said one such adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve access to the White House."

Baker and Smith did a nice job of getting to the real story. Many of their colleagues, however, were satisfied regurgitating press secretary Tony Snow's utterly transparent white lies.

Here's the transcript of yesterday's briefing.

"Q Why is she leaving?

"MR. SNOW: She's been here for six years. It's hard duty. Yes, it really is.

"Q So have some other people.

"MR. SNOW: I know. Well, as I told you guys, one of the things that -- look, Harriet is a very special person in this White House. She is beloved not only because she is a really good human being, she's an extraordinarily wonderful human being, but also somebody who is a very careful and scrupulous lawyer, a ferocious defender of the Constitution, and somebody who was also deeply loyal to the President, and just somebody who is a delight to work with. So it is one of these things where everybody really -- it's very bittersweet, and you can get that from the tenure of the -- tenor of her note. She has decided that it's time to move on. She and Josh Bolten have had a series of conversations in recent days about this, and she made her decision yesterday."

Meet Mike McConnell

Scott Shane writes in the New York Times: "In choosing Mike McConnell to be director of national intelligence, President Bush is turning again to a steady intelligence professional who first achieved prominence during his father's administration. . . .

"William P. Crowell, who worked as Mr. McConnell's deputy at the N.S.A., called him a 'consummate professional' who managed the agency with great care at a difficult time of severe post-cold-war budget cuts. Ronald D. Lee, who worked as the security agency's general counsel under Mr. McConnell, called him 'an exceptionally gifted leader who was completely devoted to the rule of law and the Constitution.'

"But W. Patrick Lang, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official who has been highly critical of the Bush administration, took a more skeptical view. He called Mr. McConnell, who made his career in naval intelligence, 'competent but compliant' and expressed concern that he might not stand up to policy makers, particularly on highly charged issues like Iran's nuclear program."

Michael Hirsh and Mark Hosenball write for Newsweek: "Perhaps McConnell's most important backer in the upper reaches of the Bush administration is Vice President Dick Cheney, with whom he worked more than a decade ago when the veep was Defense secretary under the first President Bush. McConnell had been approached at least twice before by the administration to take a top job in the intelligence director's office but turned it down, according to two former government officials. McConnell finally agreed to take the job after a direct, personal approach from Cheney, according to a former government official who talked to McConnell in the last day or two."

Here is the transcript of this morning's remarks by Bush, Negroponte and McConnell.