Panetta for CIA
Barack Obama isn’t getting any love for his pick of Leon Panetta, Bill Clinton’s former White House Chief of Staff, to head CIA. (Obama must feel a bit like he did when the gay community objected when he chose Rick Warren to give the invocation on Inauguration Day — surprised that his base objected, especially after such a decisive win in November.)
Obama really could have handled it a bit better — a heads-up to Dianne Feinstein, the new Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, would have gone a long way to smooth the way. Now Obama is getting what amounts to a brush-back pitch from Feinstein. No more crowding the plate; Obama needs to be mindful of others’ turf, especially that of high-ranking members of his own party. (Feinstein wasn’t much mollified by overtures from both Barack Obama and Joe Biden.) Part of Feinstein’s pique could also be that she wants someone in the intelligence community that she knows, someone whom she can control a bit … just speculation on my part.
I think that Panetta is an excellent choice, if a bit unorthodox. His outright repudiation of torture represents a clean break with the Bush Administration’s policies. It’s true that Panetta does not have intelligence experience. But he is an excellent manager and team builder, and I’d argue that an outsider is precisely what the intelligence community needs right now. He would know how to bring people in around him who have that experience and how to clean house.
Obama must be doing something right with this pick — if cleaning house at CIA is his goal — because the intelligence community is upset by the pick.
President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday that he has selected a “top-notch intelligence team” that would provide the “unvarnished” information his administration needs, rather than “what they think the president wants to hear.”
But current and former intelligence officials expressed sharp resentment over Obama’s choice of Leon E. Panetta as CIA director and suggested that the agency suffers from incompetent leadership and low morale. “People who suggest morale is low don’t have a clue about what’s going on now,” said CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield, citing recent personnel reforms under Director Michael V. Hayden.
It may be true that things have gotten much better at CIA. But it’s a fact that the country was ill-served by CIA during George Tenet’s tenure as CIA Director, especially during the run-up to the Iraq War. The nation was ill-served again when the CIA moved suspected terrorists to secret prisons in Eastern Europe and other countries that looked the other way if torture was used during interrogations. The nation was ill-served again when CIA began water-boarding its captives. Yes, some house cleaning needs to happen at CIA. Perhaps the intelligence community’s objections are due to some nervousness about possible lost jobs. They should be worried; some of them deserved to be fired years ago.
Deanna – this is an excellent pick. Panetta knows the ins and outs of Washington and he knows and is liked by the players.
Obama is showing that he understands that the role of the CIA Director has evolved and Directors have to have political savy and they are no longer dictators or yes men. Directors have be able to influence others effectively and get the job done so we can be safe in America.
Like you said, Obama did something right my picking Panetta and shaking up the CIA and those like Feinstein who sat by and watched Bush make a mockery of the constitution and erode our civil rights.
Obama is showing them that since Feinstein was not responsible he’s going to hold her accountable and not ‘promote’ them or her cronies within his administration and he does not trust her judgment.
Tenet was just a yes man for Bush. Panetta won’t be anyone’s yes man.
Excellent choice by Obama.