Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, that Goss was in fact only playing poker and wasn’t taking any golden showers or going on any coke-fueled benders with some underage Filipino boys.

This guy is the HEAD OF THE CIA.

The mere fact that he could have been at these events, which could be connected to unseemly and possibly illegal acts, constitues a SIGNIFICANT THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY.

People can get blackmailed with even the threat of scandalous news about stuff like this going on, and the truth of the extent of their participation is irrlevant in such things. If a person feels their reputation and livelihood could be threatened, they could be vulnerable to blackmail because people are going to assume the worst about a person regardless of facts. The fact that Goss immediate underlings, and possibly Goss himself, have been going to these things evinces at minimum a pretty careless concern for being put in possibly compromising circumstances which poses a threat to national security.

This kind of thing provides the basis for a lot of the military’s anti-gay policies. One of the supposed justifications of preventing gays from serving is that if they were closeted, and someone found out the truth of their sexual orientation, they could be subject to blackmail threatening security. Never mind that the real problem here is the general discrimination gays are subject to (which, if it didn’t exist, gays wouldn’t need to fear being “outed”), but it is the individual who is punished for merely having a disposition toward certain acts, regardless of whether they engaged in them while in service. isn’t the same principle at work here? Possibly Goss, and certainly his underlings, have shown a direct disposition to behaviors which threaten their position with regard to possible blackmail by foreign elements. Isn’t that at least sufficient reason not to trust these guys with control of the CIA?

Newsweek has now positively identified the CIA party-attender “Nine Fingers” as Brant Bassett, ex-CIA official and former Goss Hill staffer.

So while we don’t have the goods on Goss (yet), I’d say the connections are getting more than a little disconcerting….

Well, OK, is this Daily News article more to your liking then?

Here’s what it says:

Intelligence and law enforcement sources said solid evidence had yet to emerge that Goss also went to the parties

But, hey…Goss likes to play poker so he must be involved in the prostitution scandal, right?

But rest assured, I’ll be happy to keep smearing in any case.

After all, I have learned something from 6 years of Republican campaign strategy…

You may argue that that’s a “tenuous” connection if you like, but I’m pretty sure if anything like that had happened under Clinton that the entire right-wing mighty Wurlitzer would be linking not only the man who hire Foggo but the president as well to Hookergate, including much pious hand-wringing about how we can possibly explain all this vile immorality to our poor little innocent childrens.

You mean by citing more than one news source that says Porter Goss name has come up involving a hooker scandal

1) You linked to ThinkProgress which did NOT say that Goss’s name came up. ThinkProgress said “CIA Director Porter Goss is perhaps the only individual who fits such a description.” In other words, ThinkProgress brought his name up themselves.
Strike One
2) You linked to TPM which quotes Congressman Barr as saying he “can’t imagine that” Goss is involved.
Strike Two
3) You linked to the HuffingtonPost which states the media has “distinctly ignored the blog buzz about Goss’s possible — and I stress possible — involvement in the Duke Cunningham prostitute scandal.”
Strike Three
Tell me again about these “news sources” and who is bringing up Goss as being specifically involved in the prostitute scandal?

Um, and we know Goss isn t linked with Hookergate how, exactly? I must have missed that.

Um, we know that you’re not linked with child porn how, exactly? I must’ve missed that.

not the gimp. that part was nasty.

Oliver doesn’t have a national televison audience, though does he?
Does he?

The man lives to smear and distort, to be sure, but Gore is and always has been a favored target.