Head of U.S. Indulgence

Who wouldn't want a job where you get to relax at private club for three hours a day? You would think the head of U.S. intelligence would be a little more pressed for time with his job protecting us from terrorism, but you'd be wrong. I'm not saying he shouldn't get some time to relax, but every single day?

From the American Progress Action Fund:

INTELLIGENCE -- WEAKENED INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR SPENDS HOURS EACH DAY AT PRIVATE LUXURY CLUB: "On many a workday lunchtime, the nominal boss of U.S. intelligence, John D. Negroponte, can be found at a private club in downtown Washington, getting a massage, taking a swim, and having lunch, followed by a good cigar and a perusal of the daily papers in the club’s library," Congressional Quarterly (CQ) reports. "He spends three hours there [every] Monday through Friday," says a "senior counterterrorism official" quoted by the paper. What explains all the leisure time? As reporter Laura Rozen notes, the larger point is that "Negroponte has the free time because [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld and [Defense Under Secretary of Intelligence Stephen] Cambone are the ones running intelligence policy, with scarce oversight from anybody, either the White House intel czar, or Congress." Indeed, "Washington's conventional wisdom" is that Negroponte's position "is a joke," CQ reports. "The main reason is that Negroponte’s group has little power over the Pentagon’s covert actions. It's not his fault. Congress set it up that way after Rumsfeld and company worked the rooms of the House and Senate office buildings."