WASHINGTON – A Senate panel approved yesterday the nomination of veteran congressman Porter Goss to head the CIA, clearing the way for his confirmation within days and leaving agents and analysts at Langley to wonder what President Bush’s nominee means when he promises to pursue a policy of “tough love.”

According to current and former intelligence agents, there is a wait-and-see attitude at Langley about Mr. Goss. Agents are hoping the Florida congressman will be able to restore the CIA’s battered image, but they are concerned about what change may come at an agency that has been at the center of a post-September 11 firestorm over intelligence failures that stretch back to the Clinton administration.

Mr. Goss’s background as a former officer with Army intelligence and his 10 years as a CIA case officer in the 1960s reassures some at Langley that he is one of them, able to understand the intricacies and difficulties of collecting and acting on intelligence. As an insider, he has an opportunity to be a real agent of change, shaking up an organization that is demoralized but still resilient enough to weather any negative effects from reform.

Even so, there is wariness at Langley, says a former CIA agent, Ron Marks. “Goss won’t face any hostility but what they are looking for is someone to lead,” Mr. Marks said. “It is a place that responds well to clear leadership, but it can also be an institution that resists reform.”

During his confirmation hearings, Mr. Goss pledged to reform the nation’s beleaguered spy agency using a policy of “tough love.” He told senators CIA personnel should be held accountable for mistakes and neither coddled nor treated as scapegoats. He promised to be nonpartisan and objective as director, ready to be straightforward with the White House despite political pressures.

Democrats on the committee questioned whether Mr. Goss would be able to free himself of his political past. Senator Rockefeller of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the panel, voted yesterday against Mr. Goss’s nomination, saying that while he was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, the Florida congressman had “repeatedly used intelligence issues for partisan purposes.” Three other Democrats joined Mr. Rockefeller in voting against Mr. Goss.

At Langley, many also wonder if Mr. Goss will remain above the political fray as CIA director. Some former agents accuse Mr. Gross of not being firm enough in his oversight of the intelligence community during his eight-year chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee. Bob Baer, a former agent, has slammed Mr. Goss’s nomination, accusing Mr. Goss of being hand-in-glove with his predecessor, George Tenet, and not being aggressive enough when he was oversight chairman.

Other former agents argue he is not tough enough to take on the heavy lifting that will be needed. “Goss is too much of a gentleman to fix Langley,” said a former CIA case officer, Robert Steele.

But Mr. Goss has his supporters, too, among former and current agents, who appreciated his comments during confirmation that the agency needs to be more willing to take risks. They also applaud his argument that the CIA must be less prone to “group think” and quicker to challenge conventional wisdom.

According to Mr. Marks, Mr. Goss will need to move fast if he is to convince the intelligence community that he is the right man for the job. There are two immediate challenges.

“He must quickly turn around what has become slipshod intelligence analysis, and he must modernize and strengthen our human intelligence efforts,” says Mr. Marks, who served as intelligence counsel for the Senate Republican leadership.

If Mr. Goss is a serious reformer, the directorate of operations is likely to feel the effect of change first. Langley insiders say the directorate remains fixed in a Cold War mentality and that it will have to be forced to fundamentally shift its direction and methods and free itself from an overly bureaucratic approach.

Mr. Goss will also have to be ready if he wants to become the first national intelligence director, when that post is finally created as part of a post-September 11 reform effort. On Capitol Hill, it is widely assumed that President Bush will pick Mr. Goss for the post.

“I think it’s the administration’s intent that if there is a national intelligence director it would be Mr. Goss,” said Senator Roberts, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.