Grenell meets his nemesis, and battle is joined

Guardian:

A Trump loyalist nominated as director of national intelligence (DNI) looked set to sail through Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday, only nine months after being forced to withdraw for having exaggerated his security experience.

…

Katrina Mulligan, a former official who worked for more than 10 years in the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), suggested another factor that has changed since last summer could be that the Senate is eager to replace the current acting DNI, Richard Grenell, another partisan with even less experience than Ratcliffe and who is not answerable to Congress because he is not confirmed in the role.

Mulligan added that US intelligence officials may be resigned to Ratcliffe getting the top job for similar reasons.

“The morale at ODNI is so low right now and people are so fearful, that I think that there is a real sense that it could be worse,” she said. “There’s this sense that at least he can form coherent sentences, and at least he has a modicum of experience which the current acting DNI really did not.”