Opinion Journal

Over Democratic opposition, the Senate this morning confirmed Gen. Michael Hayden as CIA director. In the interest of fairness, we thought we'd print some quotes from Hayden's opponents:

• "I believe we are on our way to a major Constitutional confrontation on Fourth Amendment guarantees of unreasonable search and seizure. I think this is also going to present a growing impediment to the confirmation of General Hayden (to be CIA Director). And that is very regretted."--Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), May 11
  
  
• "Fixing intelligence also depends on real oversight from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee. Time and again this Committee has shown itself more committed to protecting the White House than to dealing with the disarray in our intelligence community. The Committee must finally take the steps necessary to fix an intelligence system that has broken on President Bush's watch, including not only determining if General Hayden is the right man for the job ahead, but also completing its investigation into the Administration's misuse of Iraq intelligence. America's security depends on it."--Harry Reid (D., Nev.), May 8
  
  
• "Earlier this year General Hayden appeared before the Press Club where he said of the program: 'the intrusion into privacy is also limited: only international calls.' . . . It is hard to see however--if the leaks about this program are accurate -- how the only intrusions into Americans' privacy are related to international phone calls as General Hayden said at the National Press Club. And it's certainly not hard to see the potential for abuse--and the need for an effective check in law on the government's use of that information."--Carl Levin (D., Mich.), May 18

Oh wait, sorry, all three of these senators voted for Hayden's confirmation. They said they'd look out for our precious civil liberties, then they folded like a cheap accordion! Hayden was confirmed by a lopsided 78-15 margin, with 14 Dems and Republican Arlen Specter saying "nay."

Hayden's victory probably would have been even more overwhelming were it not for the desire of senators aspiring to the White House to show their left-wing bona fides. On Wednesday we argued that Evan Bayh's and Russ Feingold's "no" votes (in committee) were evidence that they were trying to position themselves to Hillary Clinton's left. With today's roll call, you can add Chris Dodd, John Kerry* and Barack Obama to the list.

But all of them failed, for Mrs. Clinton also voted against Hayden.

* At least he served in Vietnam, unlike Chris Dodd!