Leon Panetta - CIA Head

[Kiwon]

President-elect Barack Obama will name him Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17072.html

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Good choice by Nobama for CIA head.

He was good at keeping secrets as Clinton's chief of staff (Monica Lewinsky, Kathleen Willey attempted rape, etc..) and he's old enough (71) to go senile and forget what he hears.

PIP, are you proud of this Clinton-era AARP cabinet Nobama is assembling?

[sheepshead]

I can't wait to hear about Janet Reno's next job!

[sheepshead]

When you're doin' shit like this-well you dont know a lot of qualified people.



http://www.wjno.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=244038&article=4801196

[digitaldean]

I just don't get it. Does Panetta have something on Obama? The guy has NO intel experience.

If the GOP had a similarly non-qualified candidate, there'd be howls on the other side.

Obama's aides never even informed sr. Sen. Intel cmte members like Sen. Dianne Feinstein about the appt. She's not real thrilled with the appt.

If they wanted to promote a Dem. to CIA, they could've picked Rep. Jane Harmon who is on the House Committee on Homeland Security (Chair of the Intelligence Subcommittee). Assuming she was passed over because she was in favor of the surge in Iraq.

A lot of fumbling and stumbling (when you add in the Richardson / Blago / Stuart Smalley fiascoes).

[sheepshead]

Paneta was chief of staff when Bill was doing Monica. Nice resume enhancer. This is like Donna Shalala as Sec of Defense.

[sheepshead]

From a blog:

Sen. Dianne Feinstein made the innocent-sounding but in fact wholly-remarkable statement that the choice of Leon Panetta for DCI is unsatisfactory because the role should be filled by a person with enough experience to understand what the CIA actually does.

Wouldn’t it be equally remarkable to suggest that the American people should have elected a President with enough experience to understand what the government actually does?

We shouldn’t be surprised that a man like Obama would pick a man like Panetta for a critically-important job that he isn’t qualified to do.

[SkinBasket]

This is one of those times some of us saw coming when Douche McStruddle was made president elect. The safety of this nation is being put aside for politics and recycled favors for former administration people (change we can believe in!!). I thought Obama was smarter than that after keeping Gates and his staff for the time being, but you know what they say about fool me once.

[texaspackerbacker]

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.

Panetta is an old liberal. Bad as that is, it's nothing compared what Obama might have picked. With his background, Obama himself wouldn't be eligible for a security clearance if he wasn't president. You can assume that most of the people he trusts the most are similarly untrustworthy and anti-American.

I'll take a worn out Clintonista over that.

[swede]

Start living the dream Obama! America is the fat white girl you've been dreaming about. If you're trying to screw the country up you can do way better than appointing a completely unqualified political hack like Panetta to head the CIA.

You should have just picked William Ayers to head the CIA. With a 60 vote majority in the Senate I don't see Al Franken standing in the way

[Patler]

He won't be the first head of a government agency who knows nothing about the business of the agency. Some would say it is better that way, with a politician as the figure head who will not actively disrupt operations directed by the lifetime guys running the day-to-day affairs.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I don't know what the objection to Panetta is. He seems like one of smarter, more balanced people around. I've always been impressed by him.

You guys sound like he appointed Howard Dean.

[SkinBasket]

You should have just picked William Ayers to head the CIA.

Sadly, even he would have had more experience with the CIA than Panetta.

[swede]

I don't know what the objection to Panetta is. He seems like one of smarter, more balanced people around. I've always been impressed by him.

You guys sound like he appointed Howard Dean.

Actually, I agree with you. Patler as well. But the honeymoon is over and I'm enjoying wild-eyed Obama Derangement.

One blog I read suggested that it behooves Obama to have HIS guy as the CIA head in order to be sure that the agency stays in line.

Another opposing blog suggested that in this critical time we needed a particularly astute leader to focus the CIA's efforts on counter-terrorism.

I can't weigh these intellectual arguments AND make fun of Obama's ears.

[texaspackerbacker]

I hereby flip-flop on this matter. I was for Panetta before I was against him--which I now am--not that it makes a helluva lot of difference what I or Republicans in the Senate or Americans in general think about this.

Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton BOTH appointed heads of the CIA who systematically and intentionally gutted the agency and handicapped our intelligence capabilities. The infamous Jamie Gorelick "wall"--designed to hamstring the CIA from passing intel to the FBI and other police and defense organizations--was the most damaging single factor causing 9/11.

Panetta is on record as opposing the tactics that have successfully prevented acts of terror in America since 9/11. In that respect, he reflects the Obama rhetoric of the primaries. There was reason to hope when Obama retained Gates as Sec.of Defense and appointed that Marine general as his head of National Security that he had seen the light and chosen to continue what has successfully foiled the terrorist enemy. This Panetta appointment, however, is a concession to Obama's extreme leftist America-hating base which greatly increases the prospect of terrorist hits killing large numbers of Americans--by deviating from what has proven successful in combatting the terrorist enemy.

[HowardRoark]

I don't know what the objection to Panetta is. He seems like one of smarter, more balanced people around. I've always been impressed by him.

You guys sound like he appointed Howard Dean.

I agree with this. He has always come off as a reasonable guy to me too. Also, he lives in Carmel Valley, so I know he is smart.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

I don't know what the objection to Panetta is. He seems like one of smarter, more balanced people around. I've always been impressed by him.

You guys sound like he appointed Howard Dean.

I agree with this. He has always come off as a reasonable guy to me too. Also, he lives in Carmel Valley, so I know he is smart.

Ah, the Grapevine Express. Good times.

[swede]

Tyrone! Welcome back!

I feared a garbage truck had backed over your cardboard box.

Without a crackhead cracking heads in here it ain't the same light-hearted place.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Tyrone! Welcome back!

I feared a garbage truck had backed over your cardboard box.

Without a crackhead cracking heads in here it ain't the same light-hearted place.

Ty has been pretty despondent over the packer season and badger football.

[bobblehead]

Tyrone! Welcome back!

I feared a garbage truck had backed over your cardboard box.

Without a crackhead cracking heads in here it ain't the same light-hearted place.

Ty has been pretty despondent over the packer season and badger football.

Ty still has the Cards alive and kicking....at least for a few days.

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Tyrone! Welcome back!

I feared a garbage truck had backed over your cardboard box.

Without a crackhead cracking heads in here it ain't the same light-hearted place.

Ty has been pretty despondent over the packer season and badger football.

Ty still has the Cards alive and kicking....at least for a few days.

Ty doesn't roll that way. Ty only loves the Pack.

Ty isn't going to jump on the Card bandwagon, especially knowing how truly sucky they are and that the Bidwell's rival the Fords as worst owners in the league.