Did Mike McConnell screw up badly?

It kind of looks as though he did.  So much for the über-lord of all US intelligence agencies.

Rush Holt knows about lying government officials.  As it happened, a week before the New York Times' James Risen and Eric Lichtblau blew the lid off administration wiretapping, the New Jersey Democratic member of Congress had paid a visit to the National Security Agency director, General Michael Hayden. 

It was December of 2005 and Holt told Hayden he wanted to be able to assure his constituents over the holiday break that they weren't being surveilled by their government.  As Holt has said in interviews, Hayden assured him there was no surveillance program involving American citizens.  One week later, Holt found out the truth.  "Hayden lied."

Holt, a member of the House Intelligence Committee is understandably wary when he's around Bush intelligence appointees these days.  He appears to think Mike McConnell's credibility is shot.

Representative Rush D. Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, called Mr. McConnell’s role in the surveillance debate an “unsatisfactory, even embarrassing performance.”

“If a senior member of the intelligence community is going to speak truth to power,” Mr. Holt said, “he has to be in the habit of presenting the unvarnished truth. “

McConnell continues to insist "that contrary to statements from senior Democrats he had never given a verbal commitment to their plan."  The more we know about the bait-and-switch trick the White House played on Democratic Congressional leaders, the more we know about Mike McConnell's integrity.  And the less we like.