Now, as he prepares to step down two-plus years later, most would agree that Mr. Hayden, a former director of the National Security Agency who retired only last year as an Air Force general, was everything his predecessor - former Florida Rep. Porter Goss, whose 18-month tenure at the helm of the CIA is best described as rocky - wasn't.

Through congressional testimony and other channels, Mr. Hayden aired much of the CIA's so-called "dirty laundry," including describing the spy agency's interrogation and counterterrorism methods, procedures and policies.

One in house memo obtained by Inside the Beltway in 2008 had the CIA director reiterating to staff about waterboarding: "[T]his technique is not part of CIA's current program, has been used in the past on only three detainees, has not been used for nearly five years, and the threat and operational circumstances under which it was previously used have changed dramatically."

Still, as President-elect Barack Obama announces his intentions to replace Mr. Hayden with former Rep. Leon Panetta of California, who also had served as chief of staff to President Clinton, there are still grumblings heard within the media and elsewhere that the agency hasn't gone far enough to reassure a skeptical public.

"We've read and heard a lot over the past few days about the status of morale at CIA," CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield now tells Inside the Beltway. "A lot of this garbage appears to be coming from has-beens, wannabes or never-weres. Unnamed sources who suggest morale is low don't have any idea what's going on here ... .

"CIA employees don't spend a lot of time navel-gazing, pondering their fate, or feeling unappreciated. That's not the culture here, nor is there time. They're busy focusing on the mission and doing everything they can to help keep the country safe. That's what the American people expect of us."

A 2008 survey of CIA employees had 88 percent of respondents describing the agency as the best of all possible places to work.

"If what I'm hearing from reporters is true about shrinking budgets, layoffs, closing of bureaus, etc., I would imagine that morale here is a heck of a lot higher than in most newsrooms these days," Mr. Mansfield concludes.