CIA nominee easily wins confirmation

WASHINGTON — Gen. Michael Hayden won confirmation as the 20th CIA director Friday in a lopsided Senate vote, placing a career Air Force officer in charge of the civilian spy agency wrestling with intelligence reform at home as well as al-Qaida and other international threats.

The Senate approved Hayden, 78-15. He is expected to be sworn in next week.

Breaking with the White House, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., voted against the four-star general. He said he was protesting the administration's failure to inform Congress of intelligence operations, particularly its warrantless surveillance program.

Washington state senators, both Democrats, split on the nomination, with Maria Cantwell voting against confirmation and Patty Murray voting for it.

For about a year, Hayden served as top deputy to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte. He was National Security Agency director for the six years before that, beginning in 1999.

Through that role Hayden became a key figure in the debate about Bush's post-9/11 directive ordering the NSA to monitor — without court approval — the calls and e-mail of Americans when one party is overseas and terrorism is suspected.

Hayden, 61, is the first military officer to run the CIA in 25 years, when retired Adm. Stansfield Turner was in charge.

Some lawmakers questioned whether now is the time for a uniformed officer to head the CIA, as the Pentagon assumes an increasingly dominant role in intelligence collection and analysis.

At his confirmation hearing, Hayden said that if his uniform got in the way, "I'll make the right decision."

On the final day before a weeklong Memorial Day break, the Senate rushed through a string of nominations, including:

• R. David Paulison, who was confirmed unanimously as the new chief of the embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency, for which he has served as acting director since September.

• Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, a former U.S. senator, who was confirmed as Interior secretary on a voice vote.

• Former U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, who was confirmed, without opposition, as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

• White House aide Brett Kavanaugh, who, after a three-year wait, was confirmed on a 57-36 vote as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Cantwell and Murray both voted against his confirmation.