‘A FULL-FLEDGED BOUQUET-TOSSING CONTEST’: The Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing for William Burns to be the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency was such a lovefest that at one point Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden said it was at risk of “becoming a full-fledged bouquet-tossing contest.”

Burns, an old hand with decades of experience as a senior diplomat, was lauded in introductory remarks by former Republican Secretary of State James Baker and Democratic former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. “He’s scrupulously nonpartisan, and he has decades of experience working closely with the CIA and other intelligence agencies. He knows Washington. He knows the world,” said Baker.