Goss announced that he is leaving his short tenure as the CIA director, a day after it was revealed that the Watergate hotel has been responding to subpeonae regarding the Cunningham-Wades-Wilkes prostitute scandal — a scandal to which Goss has been attached.

[BACKGROUND:  Last week, Harper’s magazine reported that, for more than a decade, Cunningham-linked defense contractor Brent Wilkes curried favor with lawmakers and CIA officials by hosting weekly parties at lavish hospitality suites at the Watergate and Westin hotels in Washington. Guests would gamble, socialize, and sometimes receive prostitutes.  Since the article, the #3 man at the CIA admitted that he hosted and attended such parties.  The article also mentioned that party-goers under intense scrutiny by the FBI "are current and former lawmakers on Defense and Intelligence committees — including one person who now holds a powerful intelligence post.” CIA Director Porter Goss is perhaps the only individual who fits such a description (a powerful intelligence officer who used to be on the Defense and Intelligence Committees in Congress), which is why he has been linked to the scandal.]

Still, it’s being played up as another "shake-up" story, which makes no sense since Goss practically just arrived at the CIA with the assignment to shake it up.   I’m with Josh Marshall on this one :

And the talking heads on CNN were speculating whether Goss’s departure might be part of Josh Bolten’s ‘new blood’ shake up in the Bush administration. I don’t suppose it anything to do with the fact that Goss is neck deep in the Wilkes-Corruption-and-Hookers story that’s been burbling in the background all week. We don’t know definitely why Goss pulled the plug yet. But the CIA Director doesn’t march over to the White House and resign, effective immediately, unless something very big is up.

UPDATE:  Tim Russert is reporting on MSNBC that Goss has been talking with National Intelligence Director Negroponte for weeks, so this was a planned departure.  Russert’s source is a "key White House official" (*cough* Rove *cough*), so believe it if you want.  It still makes no sense — under the normal course of events, wouldn’t he stay on until a replacement was found and announced?  Why the rush?  Why a resignation effective immediately?  Why announce on a Friday, the day typically reserved by administrations to announce negative news so it won’t "gain legs"?

ANOTHER RUMOR:  Perhaps Goss resigned (or was fired) because he refused to fire his loyal aide, who definitely is caught up in the prostitution scandal.  Could be, although (of course) we were hoping that Goss himself is implicated.