The Panetta Pick
January 6th, 2009 admin Posted in conservative |
It seems Diane Feinstein is peeved that Obama dared to ignore her:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week begins her tenure as the first female chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said today that she was not consulted on the choice and indicated she might oppose it.
“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,” Feinstein said. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”
The choice of Panetta was seen as a sign that Obama considered it more important to have a steady political hand and astute manager at the helm of the agency, rather than someone with deep operational experience.
In picking Panetta, Obama risks raising anew questions about the politicization of the CIA, a concern cited by leading congressional officials.
Meanwhile, others like the choice:
I always liked Panetta. He served in the Army and is openly proud of it. He seems to be a good lawyer (oxymoronic though it may seem). He’s a good manager. And he’s going to watch Obama’s back at a place that’s full of stilettos and a track record for attempted presidential assassination second to none. But Italians know all about political assassination; you may remember Julius Caesar. Or Aldo Moro. The self-proclaimed cognoscenti will deride his lack of “spycraft,” and he’s never worked in the intel bureaucracy or, for that matter, in foreign policy or national security. But he’s been chief of staff, which involved all that stuff. I think it’s a smart move...
So he sounds competent, if not from the agency’s ranks. It might do some good to have a guy who’s not an entrenched insider running the agency. It also signals a move away from the abuses of the Bush years, which is quite frankly something the CIA needs to do. As far as Feinstein is concerned, she is just another example of how the rest of the party has turned shooting itself in the foot into an art form.
by West Virginia Rebel
