In the business world they keep score by counting their money. In Washington it is the accumulation of power that determines the winners. So it was remarkable last week to see denizens of the capital giving away power, and in large dollops.
First Bill Clinton agreed that his CIA director could have near veto authority over the appointments of intelligence chiefs in the Pentagon and other government agencies. It was even more remarkable to watch the Senate Intelligence Committee trying to ladle out still more power for the CIA chief by proposing that he control the entire $28 billion annual intelligence budget, most of which heretofore was under the control of the Department of Defense. It didn't take a master spy to find out the winner in this game: John Deutch, only the second director of Central Intelligence to hold Cabinet rank, and clearly becoming the most powerful spymaster Washington has ever seen.
This power didn't fall accidentally into the former M.I.T. professor's lap; he has lobbied hard for it. While he mouthed technocratic demurrals before the Senate committee, promising not to be too "intrusive" and humbly noting that "my Cabinet colleagues, Secretaries of Defense...of State, the Attorney General, have concerns about how future directors of Central Intelligence would, over the long term, play a role in this concurrence," it was clearly time for the winner to take all.
Deutch has been DCI for only one year, but rebuilding a CIA crippled by scandal and low morale isn't enough to satisfy his ambitions. His goal is to consolidate personal control over Washington's sprawling intelligence community, which consists of no fewer than 28 separate and often feuding organizations. Last week the President and the Senate gave him a giant boost toward that end. Indeed, Deutch is in the midst of one of the most impressive power grabs ever seen in Washington. At one point during last week's hearing, intelligence chairman Arlen Specter said the committee was "trying its best to strengthen the hand" of the director of Central Intelligence. It was a sweet payoff for Deutch's schmoozing with Specter and other power brokers.
By sheer force of personality, Deutch has become the most well-connected spymaster since Allen Dulles ran the CIA for Dwight Eisenhower (Dulles' brother John Foster Dulles was Secretary of State). Deutch is also well on his way to becoming even more powerful than Ronald Reagan's notoriously influential spy chief, Bill Casey, who was the first director to hold Cabinet rank. When Deutch appeared reluctant to quit as Deputy Defense Secretary for the CIA job, Clinton dialed up the pressure by again upgrading it to a Cabinet post. Unlike Casey, Deutch ostensibly refrains from advocating policy with the President, only offering information. "Well, John, I know that you can't have an opinion or any advice on this," Clinton likes to joke at meetings. "But what do you think?" The President relishes Deutch's company, his intensity, yes, even his advice.