It’s a pretty bleak picture, but screams out that they badly need someone like Judge Chertoff. This paragraph in particular:

The department has accomplished a great deal in immensely difficult circumstances, but it could have accomplished even more if it had had more aggressive and experienced staff,” said [Richard A.] Falkenrath, now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. “It would have done better if it had been less timid, less insular and less worried about facing down internal and external opposition.

It Mr. Falkenrath is right, Judge Chertoff is just what the doctor ordered: aggressive, experienced, and the living, breathing antithesis of timid, insular and worried about his capacity to face down opposition. Are the senators (particularly the Democrats) actually interested in fixing what ails this behemoth of a department — the creation of which, they all insisted post-9/11, was crucial to protecting the homeland? Or do they just want to have more inane theater about detentions and “torture memos”? If it’s the former, Judge Chertoff will be confirmed in a heartbeat.