For those who have been ardently predicting the demise of GOP control of congress this November, it might be well to review your predictions on anther issue of national policy, the nomination of Air Force General Michael Hayden to be the next head of CIA.

Hayden’s nomination was approved by the US Senate this afternoon by a vote of 78 to 15, which according to the NYT was

…a margin that was a marked turnaround from the predictions of trouble that greeted his nomination less than three weeks ago. At the time, a number of Republicans joined Democrats in questioning whether a uniformed officer should lead the intelligence agency.

The Democrats, being a rather slow-witted group, had assumed that the rest of the country was equally forgetful of another military man, Admiral Stansfield Turner, whose tenure as Jimmy Carter’s DCI astounded the KGB and marked the beginning of the CIA’s slow slide into borderline irrelevance.

So welcome aboard, General. You’ll find the broom and the burnbags in the closet where Mr. Goss left them. You’ll need them both. Good luck, Sir.