For my money, I will bet on the Nicholas model -- ineffective and meddling. We have just created yet another layer of bureaucracy through which all-important decisions will have to pass. And like any czar, ours must have his court -- or as we call them today, his staff. As controller of almost all of the intelligence budgets, each of his subalterns (directors of the CIA, DIA and the other dozen or so current intelligence services) will have to make their case to him for decisions ranging from buying a new spy satellite to how much money should be in the reptile fund (needed for miscellaneous skullduggery.)

 And, of course, whoever hands out the money must keep checking on how his money is spent. But, as no one man can have the time to properly monitor so many projects, he will have staffers who will roam the halls of the working intelligence agencies. As is always the case in such matters, a colonel on the czar's staff will trump a three star general with responsibilities to actually accomplish something in the real world.

 The current system lacks an accelerator and a steering wheel. The reformers are betting that the czar will be the steering wheel. I'm betting he and his inevitably ever-growing number of staffers will become yet more brakes. Worse, on many maneuvers, he will be steering blind. And when he tries to steer, there will be a terrible delay between when he turns the wheel on the bridge and when the great vehicle actually begins to swerve. It will be like taking the Queen Mary through a slalom.

 All this is being brought down on our intelligence services because of a misdiagnosis after Sept. 11 -- the dreaded stovepipe. Yes, it was true that the CIA and FBI could not easily talk with each other -- because existing federal law prohibited many forms of communications.

 So, to stop little bits of information going up separate stovepipes (an unuseful metaphor established by the critics in 2002, as valuable information is not equivalent to exhaust smoke) -- we are adding a new story to the house and a common chimney on the top. Other remodeling will inevitably follow. Although note, the FBI is still in a separate building.

 But what needed to be changed -- and still needs to be changed -- is the culture and habits of the different services. The cure for that is new doctrines and new leadership -- preferably at the agency, not super agency, level. An Ivan the Terrible might just be able to accomplish that. But Congress has not been that bold (thank God.) They have created a czar who is just powerful enough to meddle, but not powerful enough to mold and lead (a power in one man's hand that has its own obvious dangers.)

 This is the result that flows from a lot of hysterical people saying the status quo is unacceptable, and something, anything must be done. Well, they have done something. Let's hope it doesn't end with a firing squad.