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GUEST: Marjorie Cohn, Professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and President-elect for National Lawyers Guild and regular columnist for truthout.org

During a nearly eight-hour hearing yesterday, the Senate Intelligence Committee questioned Bush’s nominee, General Michael Hayden to lead the CIA. Many of the questions were about the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program, its huge telephone call database and whether Hayden can maintain his independence from the Pentagon. Media commentators this morning remarked on how Hayden repeatedly showed an independent streak by distancing himself from hardliners like Rumsfeld. Hayden told Congress yesterday that he “wasn’t comfortable” with the secret Pentagon unit created by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s policy advisers that claimed al-Qaida had ties to Saddam Hussein. Hayden appeared confident enough in his own confirmation to blast lawmakers who don’t publicly back controversial intelligence programs they agree with privately. In fact, few senators seemed very concerned about the surveillance program.