Speaker Steamed over Goss

According to Robert Novak, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert gave Vice President Dick Cheney an earful over the unceremonious sacking of Porter Goss as CIA chief. When Cheney went to the House last week to accept the Distinguished Service Award along with Porter Goss and others, he met with the Speaker and then the row erupted. Hastert let Cheney know, in no uncertain terms, that he took the treatment of Goss as a personal affront. Not only had his personal friend given up a safe FL seat at the President's urging and against the Speaker's suasion but Goss had also been shabbily treated after his good start at cleaning up the CIA's profound partisan problems. To make matters worse, Home Security Secretary Negroponte neglected to give the Speaker a "heads up" in their meeting two days prior to the canning of his personal friend and former colleague. Further, the abrupt nature of the axing gave resonance to rumors that Goss may have lost his job due to some connection with the Cunningham corruption probe. In an effort to assuage the Speaker's ire, Cheney immediately set up a meeting for the Speaker to meet with the President in his personal quarters. At the meeting, Bush expressed his deep admiration for Goss and vainly tried to fully appease the anger of Hastert. Of course, the fact that Republican control of the House and, consequently, his position as Speaker are at risk due in no small measure to the President's abysmal poll ratings may be an aggravating factor for Hastert.