Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., huffed on C-SPAN that Goss - chairman of the House intelligence committee and a former Army intelligence operative and CIA officer - was a "partisan" choice because he was - how dreadful - a Republican. Menendez hinted that San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi and gang would obstruct the nomination (all the better to make political hay for John Kerry).

How come Menendez, Pelosi et al. didn't grumble, when Bush took office, that he kept on controversial Clintonista George Tenet?

Congressman Menendez, your partisanship is showing, and don't think that voters won't notice that Democrats are willing to weaken national security for their own short-term gain.

Editor's note: