The White House is not hiding its anger about the tactics used by Senate Republicans, tactics the adminstration sees as the reason for Former National Security Advisor Tony Lake's decision to drop his bid to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Speaking to reporters, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said, "the president feels that the process that Tony went through was inexcusably flawed and I think that members of the United States Senate ought to ask themselves today whether the Senate still maintains the capacity for effective, bipartisan oversight of the intelligence community."

McCurry was quick to draw attention to a published quote from a senior Republican member of the Senate who said, "Chairman Shelby's actions were solely based on politics." Said McCurry: "It is clear that what we were gonna face was interminable delay, the likelihood of damage to professional, career people who work at the NSC, the likelihood that Tony would have paid an extremely heavy human price for waging a fight that in the end he didn't want to wage."

McCurry went on to blast the Republican committee staff, saying, "I think some of the committee's staff did things that Sen. Shelby should be held accountable for." McCurry would not elaborate. But he did add that "this is the committee that has always conducted itself with admirable bipartisanship. In the words of Sen. [John] Kerry [D-Mass.], the vice chairman of that committee, 'that process has broken down apparently,' and I think that should be very troubling to members of the Senate."

Asked if Clinton agrees with all the sentiments expressed in Lake's letter, McCurry said, "He agrees with a great number of them, yes. Tony Lake would have been confirmed but it would have been at an enormous price to him personally. ... It would have done damage to the spirit and morale of the agency."

McCurry says that the president made it clear to Lake that he was willing to fight for the entire year to get him confirmed and urged him to take up the fight. McCurry dismissed the notion that the NSC's involvement in the campaign finance controversy played a part in Lake's hard time on Capitol Hill.

McCurry says the administration will "want to move quickly" to find a replacement nominee. He would not define "quickly," but noted that the president has a schedule loaded with meetings with international leaders and that "it is vital to the president to have a strong leader of the intelligence community in place."

He says the president, vice president, Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles and presidential aide John Podesta will be involved in the search for a new nominee.