Oh my God -- PANETTA?
→The Human Conspiracy Blog: http://www.jaygaskill.com/blog3
→The Policy Think Site: http://www.jaygaskill.com
All contents, unless otherwise indicated are
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 by Jay B. Gaskill
Please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail at law@jaygaskill.com
Oh, My God… PANETTA?
President elect Obama has reportedly signaled the nomination of Leon Panetta, a Clinton loyalist (he was Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff) - a lawyer-politician with absolutely no national security or intelligence credentials - to head the CIA.
Mr. Panetta is, by all accounts, conventional liberal with weak centrist leanings.
Leaving out his honorable, but not particularly distinguished military service, and his academic background (neither of which places his relevant national security experience significantly above that of, say, Sarah Palin – who as Alaska governor has a higher security clerarance)... you have another ordinary politician.
So….here is Mr. Panetta’s more recent resume to head the CIA, courtesy of a Wikipedia Article updated (I believe with input from the Obama team):
· 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.
The phrase underwhelming comes to mind. You can put a tuxedo on the guy and issue him a top security clearance but you still don’t get 007, let alone “M”.
Simply put, this is an appalling appointment, and the single most worrisome development in the formation of the Obama governing team to date.
I can only conclude that loyalty trumps all other considerations. We are entitled to wonder – WHY?
JBG
