So reports Jake Tapper: PEBO Taps Panetta to Head CIA
Democratic officials tell ABC News that President-elect Obama has tapped former Rep. Leon Panetta, D-Calif., to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.Panetta, who served as both director of the Office of Management and Budget and chief of staff for former President Bill Clinton, is well regarded in Washington and served as a member of the Iraq Study Group. But he has little apparent experience in intelligence matters other than during his time in the Army, from which he was discharged in 1966.
First, the headline marks the first time I have seen the acronym PEBO. It makes me think of Peabo Bryson, rather than President-elect Obama.
Second, my initial, and thoroughly unanalytical reponse to the news: really? Panetta? Is he CIA material?
Third, my next reaction: hmm, maybe what we need in the intel community post-Bush is someone from outside the intel community…
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January 5th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
My reactions:
1> It shows the complete nonseriousness with which Obama regards the whole idea of intelligence.
2> Was this the best that could get past the left wing censors? Was everybody with any experience and a left of center point of view vetoed by the nutroots?
3> I’m also reminded of the old Soviet days. If a high level apparachik wanted to get rid of a group of up-and-coming rivails he could always task the entire group running the agriculture ministry. The group would be soon discredited, as nobody could be successful there because of the constraints from above. Now the entire foreign policy apparatus is being run by either Clintons (State, CIA) or Republicans (Defense). If they fail because of neglect it really isn’t Obama’s fault…
January 5th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
1. Well, I suppose it depends on what he is concerned about. If it is the torture issue, which I actually hope that it is, then this could be construed as a very serious appointment from his point of view–although I do understand you won’t see it that way. If it is torture, secret prisons, etc, then that at least explains part of your #2.
3. Of the thing that Obama will be able to do in the next 4 years, ignore foreign policy won’t be one of them. While I take your basic point, I don’t think it applies.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
He is just as qualified as the elder President Bush was when he filled the post.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
In addition, it’s high priority to get an outsider in there, to clean up. The fact that the GOP, including Diane ‘Vichy’ Feinstein is b*tching makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.