Working Hard Or Hardly Working?

As if that Homeland Security story wasn't scary enough, here's some news about how hard U.S. intelligence boss John Negroponte is working to make sure no more mistakes are made (pre-9/11 failures, pre-Iraq failures, domestic spying, etc).

CQ.com has details-

On many a workday lunchtime, the nominal boss of U.S. intelligence, John D. Negroponte, can be found at a private club in downtown Washington, getting a massage, taking a swim, and having lunch, followed by a good cigar and a perusal of the daily papers in the club’s library.

“He spends three hours there [every] Monday through Friday,” gripes a senior counterterrorism official, noting that the former ambassador has a security detail sitting outside all that time in chase cars. Others say they’ve seen the Director of National Intelligence at the University Club, a 100-year-old mansion-like redoubt of dark oak panels and high ceilings a few blocks from the White House, only “several” times a week.

The article frames it in a soft 'everybody needs to unwind' way, but c'mon! We pay this man's salary. And given this administration's historically awful record on matters of intelligence, Mr. Negroponte should be spending as much time at the office as possible. I don't care how much of a "comfort zone" he needs after playing hot potato over the White House's crimes and failures, this idiot should not be getting happy endings at a massage parlor while people are getting limbs blown off in Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction that weren't there. There are weekends and vacation days for that frivilous nonsense. Don't take the damn job if you can't handle the stress. You're the head of intelligence for the U.S. government, not district Walmart manager (and they'd be happy to get health insurance, let alone leisure time).

These people need to grow the hell up and act like they care about governing.