WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (AFP) - Democrats were split Tuesday over the nomination of a veteran Republican congressman to head the CIA but closed ranks to press President George W. Bush for quick action on post-September 11 intelligence reforms.
Bush's choice of Porter Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, to run the Central Intelligence Agency drew widespread praise among Republicans but mixed reactions from Democrats.
Several expressed concern that Goss, a Bush ally, could politicize the process of intelligence reform just as Washington geared to debate the recommendations of a national panel that probed the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"A person should not be the director of central intelligence who has acted in a very political way, when we're dealing with the safety of the American people," said Representative Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader.
A 15-year veteran of Congress from the electorally crucial state of Florida, Goss was recently rolled out by the Republicans to slam Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's security views as "unrealistic and dangerously naive."
Former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke, a senior adviser to Kerry, described Goss as a "serious man" with ample intelligence experience, but said "there's a lack of clarity in what the administration is proposing."
Holbrooke told CNN it was not clear whether Goss would also have the traditional title of "director central intelligence" overseeing the entire spy community, a job which the 9/11 commission wants to give to a new national intelligence czar.
Kerry has endorsed the panel's position but Bush has balked at creating a new powerful post within the cabinet or White House. Holbrooke said the Republican's stance would likely come up in Goss's Senate confirmation hearings.
"It doesn't make much sense," Holbrooke said. "And I'm sure that the senators in the course of this hearing are going demand clarification from the administration in order to go forward," he said.
Goss, 65, was tapped to replace George Tenet, who resigned as CIA chief last month amid strong criticism of the agency's failure to see the September 11 attacks coming and its faulty reports on suspected Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
While Bush was announcing his selection, congressional Democrats gathered Tuesday to push Bush for a special legislative session that could speed work on the September 11 commission's recommendations, notably the post of intelligence czar.
Pelosi said they had sent a letter to Bush asking for the special session in the hope of having some of the recommendations in place by the third anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
"We have a responsibility to the American people to provide for the common defense, to protect them against the clear and present danger of terrorism, which we have been told over and over again is an urgent threat," she told reporters.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House, although Bush has been cool so far to efforts to rush through new security legislation.
Kerry had no direct comment on the Goss nomination other than to urge expeditious confirmation hearings. But he did add his voice to calls for quick action on the September 11 panel's proposals, which he backs in their entirety.
"The most important position is one that hasn't been created yet, national intelligence director with real control of budgets and personnel," the Massachusetts senator said in a statement.
"We need to move urgently on this and other recommendations by the 9/11 Commission to make America safer," he said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan predicted that Goss would receive strong bipartisan support when his nomination comes before the Senate. But he sidestepped questions whether the congressman could become the overall intelligence supremo.
"I just think it's premature to speculate about any decision on the national intelligence director, and I wouldn't rule anything in or out," McClellan said.