Anybody Remember Leon Panetta?

[jmichna]

Malkin today:

Another day, another clueless Clinton crony

By Michelle Malkin • January 5, 2009 04:44 PM

Wow. Today is just one big, bad joke. Al Franken. Roland Burris. Bill Richardson. Now this:
Leon Panetta will head Obama’s CIA.

Another day, another clueless Clinton crony named to a top job for which he has no experience. The unqualified fish rots from the head down, after all. Via NYT. Damned scary:

President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday.

Mr. Panetta has a reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues, but has little hands-on intelligence experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take control of the agency most directly responsible for hunting senior Al Qaeda leaders around the globe, but one that has been buffeted since the Sept. 11 attacks by leadership changes and morale problems.

Given his background, Mr. Panetta is a somewhat unusual choice to lead the C.I.A., an agency that has been unwelcoming to previous directors perceived as outsiders, such as Stansfield M. Turner and John M. Deutch. But his selection points up the difficulty Mr. Obama had in finding a C.I.A. director with no connection to controversial counterterrorism programs of the Bush era.

Hey, maybe they’ll bring back Janet Reno for Commerce Secretary!
***
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Posted in: Torture

Leon Panetta, a California Democrat bean-counter... just what the CIA needs.

Great Congressional C.V.:

• Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget
• Chairman of the Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations, and Nutrition
• Chairman of the Administration Committee's Subcommittee on Personnel and Police
• Chairman of the Task Force on Domestic Hunger created by the U.S. House Select Committee on Hunger
• Vice Chairman of the Caucus of Vietnam-Era Veterans in Congress
• Member of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.

Budget... Marketing, Consumer Relations, Nutrition... Hunger... (not sure what the "Caucus of Vietnam-Era Veterans" is about)... possibly the only thing aligned with a CIA leadership position would be the international studies and foreign languages... but I wonder just what his responsibilities were?

[yeahYeah]

another clintonista!

head of the CIA? what qualifications does he have to head it up? NONE! just following in the footsteps of obama.

honestly, i'd prefer Sandy Berger for the job.

[lance22]

Bean counter? That's the wrong moniker, I think.

How about - A financial chief who's experience with political finance is mated with a background in security. Notice also that he has leadership experience in organizations that address hunger, housing, consumer issues et all.

So here's a guy who knows the banks. He knows how Washington gets paid inside and out. He understands security. He understands government housing and handouts and he knows how all of these things tie together.

Now - he's not the guy you'd hire to go out and hunt Bin Laden, he's not the guy you'd hire to find out the secrets of China's energy planning, he's not James Bond and he's not Q.

But - he's the perfect man for the new America. A man who will know how to manage the populace if we slip into a giant Katrina. He's the man who can ensure that DC politics will continue to function and drink from the fountains of it's sponsors. He'd be perfect for managing a welfare state and protecting the nobility. He's perfect for Obama, and perfect for the new America that all the liberals wish for.

[bluemoonlabel]

They want someone they think will be able to sell the new and necessary restrictions on personal freedom, they don't need/want someone looking out they want someone looking in, they believe america is the root of the problems so if you *** the bud here then the world will come into alignment and harmony.

[AZXD]

Originally Posted by lance22

Bean counter? That's the wrong moniker, I think.

How about - A financial chief who's experience with political finance is mated with a background in security. Notice also that he has leadership experience in organizations that address hunger, housing, consumer issues et all.

So here's a guy who knows the banks. He knows how Washington gets paid inside and out. He understands security. He understands government housing and handouts and he knows how all of these things tie together.

Now - he's not the guy you'd hire to go out and hunt Bin Laden, he's not the guy you'd hire to find out the secrets of China's energy planning, he's not James Bond and he's not Q.

But - he's the perfect man for the new America. A man who will know how to manage the populace if we slip into a giant Katrina. He's the man who can ensure that DC politics will continue to function and drink from the fountains of it's sponsors. He'd be perfect for managing a welfare state and protecting the nobility. He's perfect for Obama, and perfect for the new America that all the liberals wish for.

SSP, N. American Union, NAFTA, CAFTA, Social Security, Foreign Ports, Mexican Trucks

Connect the dots ... Is it, all one big plan ??

[Brickboy240]

More "hope and change" from Obama!

Lovely!

Now...the question is: will Panetta actually make it until Obama's swearing in, without being outed because of some scandal or controversy?

Obama is starting to make the Clintonista Ministry (administration) look like Boy Scouts! Seriously...is there ANYONE connected to to or appointed by Obama that is not wallowing in controversy or up on charges?

- brickboy240

[jmichna]

Newsmax reports Pelosi is not happy with the Panetta pick:

Feinstein Furious Over Panetta Pick
Monday, January 5, 2009 7:22 PM
Sen. Diane Feinstein is reportedly fuming that Barack Obama picked Leon Panetta as his new CIA Director and never consulted with her. Feinstein, the incoming chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, issued a sharp statement Monday that was a thinly veiled criticism of the pick. The statement made it clear that she had expected a career intelligence professional – unlike Panetta, who has no intelligence expertise whatsoever – to be leading the CIA.

"I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director,’’ Feinstein said.

“I know nothing about this, other than what I've read," said Senator Feinstein, who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress. "My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."

Panetta could face tough questions at his nomination hearing about his background in intelligence.

A former senior CIA official who advises Obama defended the surprise choice of Panetta, whose only military and intelligence experience is a two-year stint in the mid-1960s as a U.S. Army lieutenant.

The official told the Associated Press that Panetta had been a consumer of CIA intelligence when he was at the White House.

The source said Panetta was selected for his administrative, management and political skills that will allow him both to control and advocate for the agency.

The official added that Panetta will rely on the expertise of CIA officers to balance his lack of personal intelligence experience.

Veterans of the CIA were caught off guard by the selection. "I'm at a loss," said Robert Grenier, a former director of the CIA's counterterrorism center and 27-year veteran of the agency who now is managing director of Kroll, a security consulting company.

The lack of intelligence experience puts Panetta at "a tremendous disadvantage," Grenier told The Associated Press in an interview.
"Intelligence, by its very nature, is an esoteric world. And right now the agency is confronted with numerous pressing challenges overseas, and to have no background is a serious deficit. I don't say that he can't succeed. It may be that he can compensate for the obvious deficit."

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., ranking member of the committee, raised the specter of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 in questioning Panetta's experience after reports surfaced that Obama had tapped the former congressman and White House chief of staff to head the CIA.

“Job number one at the CIA is to track down and stop terrorists," Bond said in a statement reported by The Hill Web site. "In a post-9-11 world, intelligence experience would seem to be a prerequisite for the job of CIA Director."

Bond said that he will refrain from judging Panetta immediately, but he warned Obama and Panetta that he "will be looking hard at Panetta’s intelligence expertise and qualifications.”

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

[lance22]

One of these days Obama is going to grow weary of hearing dissent from the other democratic power brokers. When that day comes it's going to be a great show.