Porter Goss' lonely quest to investigate Jane Harman

CQ has another story up about Jane Harman this evening.

Its principal accomplishment is to add significantly to the list of Republicans who didn't think Harman's alleged quid pro quo actually amounted to much.

Recall that in the initial report, it was Alberto Gonzales who was blamed for blocking CIA Director Porter Goss' investigation into whether Harman traded favors with a "suspected Israeli agent."

Well, now we learn that in addition to Gonzales, several other high-ranking officials also didn't want to make a federal case out of it. The story lists three: John Negroponte, former national intelligence director; Dennis Hastert, former speaker of the House; and Michael Hayden, who succeeded Goss as CIA director.

A quick digest of today's story: Negroponte blocked Goss from investigating Harman, so a CIA "whistleblower" took the information to Hastert. Hastert asked for a briefing from Gonzales, but was told there was "really nothing here" to brief him about. As a courtesy, Hastert passed word to Nancy Pelosi, and then let the issue drop. When Goss was forced out in May 2006, he left Hayden a memo on Harman's conduct. But Hayden also let it drop. And that's where it stood until last week, when somebody finally leaked it to CQ.

I suppose there are actually two ways of looking at it. Either 1) there just wasn't much there; or, 2) the cover-up goes very deep. The CQ story doesn't exactly take sides on that question, but it does end by ruefully noting that former President Bush praised Harman at a swearing-in ceremony, so maybe it goes all the way to the top.

UPDATE: Talking Points Memo is going with Door #2:

Gonzales, Negroponte, and Hayden all appear to have deliberately worked to keep Congress in the dark about the wiretap. Was that because, as Gonzo reportedly believed, it continued to view Harman as an ally whose reputation needed protecting? Or because it wanted more broadly to limit the amount of information disclosed to Congress and the public about its wiretapping activities? Some combination of the two?

Or was it because they didn't think Harman did anything illegal?