Panetta gets CIA job

Politico:

President-elect Barack Obama is naming Leon Panetta, a former congressman from California and chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, to be CIA director. Obama also has picked retired Navy Admiral Dennis Blair to be director of national intelligence, overseeing all the nation's spy agencies, a Democratic official said.

The selection pairs a top military man with a quintessential Washington insider - but that combination appeared to irk some key Senate Democrats, who expressed concern that Panetta does not have an intelligence background. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time,” said California Sen. Diane Feinstein, who will oversee Panetta's confirmation as chair of the Select Committee on Intelligence.

Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), the vice chairman of the committee, also questioned the choice of Panetta. “Job number one at the CIA is to track down and stop terrorists. In a post-9-11 world, intelligence experience would seem to be a prerequisite for the job of CIA Director. While I will reserve final judgment on President-elect Obama’s nomination for the leader of our terror-fighting agency, I will be looking hard at Panetta’s intelligence expertise and qualifications."

The surprise choice of Panetta brings one of the more colorful - and quotable - Clinton administration figures back to Washington in one of the nation’s most sensitive jobs.

...

This is not a stellar appointment, but it is probably the best you can expect of a Democrat party that has a substantial number of kooks when it comes to intelligence and national security. Many of those kooks would rather see another 9-11 attack than see any of our enemies receive any discomfort to gain information to stop the plot. They would put the US always on the strategic defensive, waiting to respond to attacks with a CSI team, rather than stoping the attacks with a CIA team.

Whether Panetta can get control of the agency is another thing. The agency itself has a fair number of kooks who have tried to undercut administration policy. While Democrats might applaud that type of "independent thinking" when Republicans are in charge, I am sure they will have other thoughts when it is their guy in charge.

technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley