May 7 (Bloomberg) -- The Republican chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee urged the White House not to nominate Air Force Lieutenant General Michael Hayden to head the civilian Central Intelligence Agency.

Hayden, 61, a veteran intelligence official, is likely to be nominated, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, a senior administration official said May 5.

``I've got a lot of respect for Mike Hayden, and he's done a good job, but I do believe he's the wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time,'' said U.S. Representative Pete Hoekstra, a Michigan Republican, on ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``We should not have a military person leading a civilian agency at this time.''

The appointment may spark a political confrontation over Hayden's role in the government's warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists, a secret operation that alarmed civil liberties groups and angered members of both parties. Republicans and Democrats today said his confirmation hearings in the Senate may provide an opportunity to examine a program the White House refuses to discuss in detail.

Wiretapping

The Judiciary Committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the confirmation process and the budget are the only tools Congress has to extract information from the White House on the wiretapping.

``If the Senate has a mind to assert its constitutional prerogatives here, then we could use this for leverage to find out,'' he told ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``I think people do want to know what's going on to protect civil liberties.''

Democratic Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, ranking minority member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, called ``ludicrous'' the theory that the White House may welcome a Senate battle over warrantless wiretapping because it may show the Democrats are soft on fighting terrorism and aid Republicans trying to maintain control of Congress in the mid-term elections.

Hayden is principal deputy director in the Office of National Intelligence, the agency created last year to coordinate U.S. intelligence functions now carried out by 100,000 people in 16 civilian and military agencies. Previously he served as director of the super-secret National Security Agency, which runs massive electronic surveillance programs of international communications. The NSA operates the disputed domestic wiretapping program as well.

Intelligence Failures

Hayden would replace Porter Goss, who resigned abruptly May 5 as CIA director after less than two years in that post, during which he shook up the agency's management. The job of CIA director has become less important since the creation last year of the national intelligence office, whose director, John Negroponte, has taken over a number of functions once performed by the CIA chief.

Tension between Defense Department and civilian intelligence agencies is high in the wake of spying failures before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. and during the run-up to the Iraq war, Hoekstra said. Hayden's nomination would imply that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has too much power over intelligence, the chairman said.

``I think that clearly will be the perception in the CIA,'' Hoekstra said. ``I don't think you can underestimate the difficulty in rebuilding, reshaping and transforming the Central Intelligence Agency. This is the debate we don't need at this time.''

Military Background

Concerns about Hayden's military background are ironic, Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee that will hold confirmation hearings on a new CIA chief, said on CNN's ``Late Edition.''

``Here we have a man who everybody says is one of the best briefers that they've ever had on intelligence, a man who has been described by people on both sides of the aisle as probably knowing more about intelligence than anybody else,'' Roberts said. ``But there's some real concern about somebody from the military heading up the CIA.''

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' that she has concerns about Hayden because of the existing ``power struggle'' between the Defense Department and the civilian intelligence community.

`Gobbled Up'

The CIA may be ``just gobbled up by the Defense Department,'' Biden said. Goss's departure will allow new leaders to force the CIA to stop analyzing intelligence and restrict it to overseas spying and counterterrorism operations, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified senior intelligence official.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, both members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on ABC's ``This Week'' that they would be uneasy even if Hayden resigned from the military.

``The fact that he is part of the military today would be the major problem,'' Chambliss said. ``Resigning his commission and moving on and putting on a pinstriped suit versus an Air Force uniform I don't think makes much difference.''

`Lawless'

The White House has been ``lawless'' in running the warrantless eavesdropping program, said Representative Jane Harman, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, on CNN's ``Late Edition.'' Still, she argued, that issue should not divert the focus of the Senate's confirmation process.

``I think there's a trap here,'' Harman said. ``His confirmation should not be about whether you're for or against the National Security Agency program. It should be about whether he's the best man to transform the CIA into the premier clandestine service for the 21st century.''

Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is considering running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, told CBS's ``Face the Nation'' it would be ``inappropriate'' to take a position on Hayden's nomination before it is made official and hearings held. He said he is inclined to support Hayden.

``He is the president's selection,'' McCain said. ``I hope we can move forward with it because we are in a war.''

-- With reporting from Catherine Larkin and Viola Gienger in Washington. Editor: Hughey.

To contact the reporter on this story: Avram Goldstein in Washington at agoldstein1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 7, 2006 15:17 EDT