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Outside The Beltway | OTB: Leon Panetta as CIA Director
Political Animal: Pushback against Panetta
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth: Feinstein and Rockefeller publicly disapprove of Obama CIA choice
Daily Kos: DiFi and Jello Jay Feeling Unappreciated
David Corn: How Ugly Could a Panetta Confirmation Battle Get?
Leon Panetta as CIA Director
Outside The Beltway | OTB —
... To be sure, Panetta is a smart, decent fellow and he’s an excellent manager. As David Corn writes, “Panetta is an even-tempered and highly regarded Washington player–kind of a Mr. Fixit in a nice suit.” But he’s got essentially zero national security or intelligence experience. ...
Pushback against Panetta
Political Animal —
... , "The fact is that DiFi is actually implicated in the torture regime and should just shut up on this." Feinstein and Rockefeller notwithstanding, the Panetta selection, which won't be official until later this week, has drawn a fair amount of praise from credible voices. Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), chairman of a House Intelligence Committee oversight panel, said Panetta would help bring some needed accountability and reform to the agency. David Corn offered a similar sentiment. CQ 's ...
Feinstein and Rockefeller publicly disapprove of Obama CIA choice
AMERICAblog News| A great nation deserves the truth —
... 3. Panetta. Interesting choice. Opposed torture, not wedded to the national security special interests. I acknowledge all of that, and applaud it. But because he's an unusual choice, even an unconventional one, I'd argue that you need to handle this nomination very carefully, so as to avoid any possible hiccups (Democrats per se need to tread carefully in the area of national security because we've spent so many years letting Republicans pummel us with it). ...
DiFi and Jello Jay Feeling Unappreciated
Daily Kos —
... On the other hand, David Corn at Mother Jones finds ample evidence that Panetta might just be the best choice for restoring the rule of law at CIA. Panetta ...
How Ugly Could a Panetta Confirmation Battle Get?
David Corn —
... Yesterday, I posted a piece noting that Leon Panetta, Barack Obama's choice as CIA director, could draw opposition from CIA insiders and vets because he has been a fierce foe of waterboarding (a torture tactic used by the CIA), has advocated greater congressional oversight of CIA covert operations, and in the 1990s, as President Clinton's budget chief, pushed for cuts in the CIA's budget. Yet the first important blasts came from Democrats. Both Senator Dianne Feinstein, the incoming chair of the Senate intelligence committee, and Senator Jay Rockefeller, the ...
Panetta? Why not?
The Reaction —
... notes in an excellent post on the reaction to the selection, it "has drawn a fair amount of praise from credible voices," including Rep. Rush Holt, former Rep. Tim Roemer, David Corn, and CQ's ...
Blogtalk: The Panetta Surprise
The Caucus —
... Panetta to lead the C.I.A. simply because of his opposition to “aggressive interrogation” methods was wrong-headed: “Whatever the moral and practical arguments are against such interrogation methods, it seems awfully dangerous to apply such a rigid litmus test on that one issue, and take a risk on somebody with no intelligence background.” Though David Corn at Mother Jones, concedes — like almost everyone else — that the president-elect has made an “unusual choice” in Mr. Panetta, his stance on torture is one of his best selling points: “Panetta is an even-tempered and ...
Midday Open Thread
Daily Kos —
Scott Horton is very pleased with Obama's choices for director of the CIA (Leon Panetta) and national intelligence director (Admiral Dennis Blair). mcjoan notes that Mother Jones also has a positive take on Panetta. This looks like change we can believe in. Further evidence that the problems facing the American auto companies are caused by the economy and credit crunch more than anything else: Toyota will close every one of its Japanese production facilities for 11 days in February and March. -- DHinMI It looks like ...
The Netroots Heart Panetta
Hotline On Call Part Deux —
... to stay on for a while.
Coming on the heels of the Brennan and Hayden rumors, the Panetta selection came as welcome news to liberal bloggers. While the netroots may not love everything about Panetta's record, they think his appointment signifies a much-needed departure from George W. Bush's intelligence-gathering policies. "Good for Obama for not letting the CIA's torture apologists pressure him into naming one of their own," one blogger wrote. Another declared: "By picking Panetta, Obama is repudiating the waterboarding ways of the Bush-Cheney ...
Obama's Aide from the "Dark Side"
David Corn —
With one hand, he giveth, with the other....
By tapping Leon Panetta to be CIA chief, Barack Obama sent a clear signal: no to torture. A year ago, Panetta wrote an article declaring, "We cannot and we must not use torture under any circumstances." And he included waterboarding--which the CIA has used---as torture. In fact, Obama's reported first choice for the CIA job, John Brennan, a career CIA official, had had his chances scuttled after bloggers and others griped that he had been soft, if not supportive, when it came to torture and CIA ...
