Sen. Dianne Feinstein made the innocent-sounding but in fact wholly-remarkable statement that the choice of Leon Panetta for DCI is unsatisfactory because the role should be filled by a person with enough experience to understand what the CIA actually does.
Wouldn’t it be equally remarkable to suggest that the American people should have elected a President with enough experience to understand what the government actually does?
We shouldn’t be surprised that a man like Obama would pick a man like Panetta for a critically-important job that he isn’t qualified to do.

Let Obama do what he has to do....
Rod_Patrick Tuesday, January 6th at 6:53AM EST (link)And we should attack later. In this case… Obama is nothing but MORE OF THE SAME.
His promised CHANGE is just an election rhetoric.
We can only credibly say that if Obama successfully installs Panetta starting January 25.
On a technical note... DO WE REALLY NEED TO RECOMMEND THE FRONTPAGE DIARIES? nt
Rod_Patrick Tuesday, January 6th at 6:54AM EST (link)It's certainly not necessary
bs Tuesday, January 6th at 8:48AM EST (link)and in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if Neil turns it off some time. However, I think a lot of us (I’ve done it) have done so to acknowledge our agreement with the writer.
Decorum is fo’ suckas
Okey, bro.
Rod_Patrick Tuesday, January 6th at 11:06AM EST (link)Thanks for the clarification.
Obamas New Government Definition
Scope Tuesday, January 6th at 7:07AM EST (link)Francis- Obama doesn’t have to understand what Government actually does as he has plans to change the definition into a whole new meaning which will fit his agenda. He has nothing to learn from the past, as we have never been a Socialist form of government before.
Well...
Warner Todd Huston Tuesday, January 6th at 7:11AM EST (link)Well, now yer just talkin’ CRAZY talk! An EXPERIENCED president? Well, I never.
———-
Be sure and Visit my Home blog Publius’ Forum. It’s what’s happening NOW!
So after eight years of complaining
kowalski Tuesday, January 6th at 7:16AM EST (link)So after eight years of screaming that the Bush Administration was using the CIA and its intelligence for political purposes, the Obama Administration decides, essentially:
“It’s really OK, as long as it’s for OUR political purposes.
So he installs a pure wonk, a Washingtonian steeped in nothing more than inside-the-Oval-Office politics as Bill Clinton’s Chief of Staff, to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.
Even his Wikipedia entry testifies to how unqualified he is: it’s barely a page long and mostly consists of places and people he’s worked for.
This, to me, signals a couple of things:
1) Barack Obama intends to blatantly politicize the intelligence community in America, and use it strictly for political purposes.
2) Perhaps since Panetta’s most notable career accomplishment was (in terms of the Wikipedia article) standing up to Richard Nixon regarding the enforcement of the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Act, maybe this means that we can now expect the CIA to be involved in enforcing them.
3) Since he was politically opposed to offshore oil drilling in California, perhaps as the Director of the CIA he will take it to the next level and use covert operatives to sabotage oil rigs run by companies he doesn’t like off the coastlines of America.
4) By choosing someone so obviously ill-suited to the job of leading Agency, I can only guess that Barack Obama intends to gradually erode the morale and the competence of the intelligence community in America, prior to sweeping it into the dustbin of history.
Defend Liberty — Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
We are Americans first...
6eorge Jetson Tuesday, January 6th at 7:36AM EST (link)This pick may very well cost a lot of lives
Maybe that'll be the second time...
kowalski Tuesday, January 6th at 7:38AM EST (link)Maybe that’ll be the second time in her life that Michele Obama is truly proud of her country.
Defend Liberty — Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
Wikipedia article?
Steven Tuesday, January 6th at 11:17AM EST (link)Yeah, but MY Wikipedia entry is even shorter, (OK, it’s nonexistent.) but I’m vastly more qualified than he is.
There’s nothing quite so exhilerating as being shot at… and missed. Winston Churchill
My Kowalski
Rod_Patrick Tuesday, January 6th at 11:28AM EST (link)Please consider the timing of our attack.
Let’s wait for Panetta to “actually sit” as CIA Chief. Then we can start laughing off (or angrily scoffing) at Obama’s stupidity in his personal pick.
But I doubt if it’s really a personal pick. It’s more of a concession among Dems… like sharing the loot. What a corrupt administration it will be!
Obama had a bunch of snarky comments....
jazzycmk Tuesday, January 6th at 2:38PM EST (link)…..during his press conference today about the intelligence community. He never used Bush by name but he was obviously referring to him.
The one comment was that his (Obama’s) intelligence team will give him the “unvarnished” view of the information, as opposed to the version that they think the President wants to hear.
Whatever dude. Haven’t been attacked on US soil since 09/11/01. If varnish is what it takes, so be it.
jcmk
“90% of people don’t care about your problems…..and the other 10% are glad you have them” - former football coach Lou Holtz
Where else but government
woodsman Tuesday, January 6th at 7:19AM EST (link)would a person be hired/appointed to a position of which they know nothing about? But then, it has already happened with the highest office in the land.
He did it to avoid
kowalski Tuesday, January 6th at 7:33AM EST (link)He did it to avoid the backlash from the New York Times and human rights pressure groups.
Period.
Obama intends to hand the CIA to a guy with no specific intelligence background because he wants to curry favor with human rights organizations and the liberal members of the press.
Defend Liberty — Join the NRA | Live in Massachusetts? Join GOAL.
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Jeff Emanuel Tuesday, January 6th at 8:29AM EST (link)5555555555555555555555555555555555
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JE
Panetta thought AQ meant Absinth Quaffer
Marcus_Traianus Tuesday, January 6th at 8:35AM EST (link)You will have to forgive me if I find having a member of Clinton’s administration anywhere near intelligence an offensive act. Why? Well these are the same people that were dissmissive of AQ and OBL in the entire run-up to 9-11. Then, true to form, made everyone else a scapegoat when 3,000 people died.
Having Sandy Berger’s lunch partner as DCI is probably one of the worst, despicable choices I could imagine. It is also another reason this incoming administration should be called “Clinton II; The Final Destruction”.
“Both of our political parties, at least the honest portion of them, agree conscientiously in the same object—the public good; but they differ essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. One side believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers; the other, by a different one. One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is right, time and experience will prove.”.Thomas Jefferson
Contributor to The Minority Report
OK, so I turned to the normal Leftist mouthpiece...
bs Tuesday, January 6th at 9:10AM EST (link)…. the NYT, and this is what I found.
So “gravitas” and “ties to Obama” qualifies one to lead one of the most important national security entities in the US? I am prohibited from typing what I want to here because of the “No Profanity” instruction. Oh wait, I’m sorry - I missed this one - he also has “managerial skills”. I didn’t realize the ability to plop one’s butt in a desk chair so it doesn’t float away qualified one to head an intelligence organization.
But wait, there’s more:
So the truth starts to emerge. This was potentially a bone thrown to H’s far left critics who say they haven’t been represented. Panetta’s in there to eliminate torture. What a wonderful top priority for an intelligence-gathering body. We see evidence here:
Shocker.
Decorum is fo’ suckas
Sorry...
bs Tuesday, January 6th at 9:11AM EST (link)NYT article here
Decorum is fo’ suckas
There is no doubt in my military mind
1SGinTN Tuesday, January 6th at 2:12PM EST (link)that the Obama administration and the Dems will allow what now passes for ‘torture’ if it suits their purposes - just as they have been found to have double standards and hypocrisy on most other issues.
Just as it once depended on what the definition of “is” is, the definition of ‘ torture’ can also be adjusted - if it suits their purposes. I think we have seen that no one is slicker than a Democrat lawyer when weasel words are called for.
Anything that was once said for far-Left consumption will become non-operative, as necessary, once the inauguration is over.
Tu Ne Cede Malis
-Virgil
"I think we have seen that no one is slicker than a Democrat lawyer when weasel words are called for"..you just made the list...
$peciallist Tuesday, January 6th at 2:19PM EST (link)epic
The new definition of torture:
izoneguy Tuesday, January 6th at 2:23PM EST (link)When they say:
The president of the United States -
Barack H. Obama
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
I thought
Jonah Shumate Tuesday, January 6th at 9:18AM EST (link)Obama was going to CHANGE Washington, and bring newness to it?! Here is a good quote from the Bloomberg article:
Senator Ron Wyden, a member of the intelligence panel, said Panetta is a “savvy” Washington veteran who can change the agency.
Savvy Washington veteran, eh? Well, there are all of a sudden a whole lot of Washington Veterans getting appointed to some positions and the winds of change are being replaced by the winds of adminstrations past!
Panetta's knowledge of spies comes from Robert Ludlum and James Bond
JustLeaveMeAlone Tuesday, January 6th at 9:51AM EST (link)Be afraid; be very afraid.
“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” Thomas Jefferson
More likely Bill Murray
The_Gadfly Tuesday, January 6th at 12:49PM EST (link)as in “The Man Who Knew Too Little.”
Except the script writers won’t be working for Leon, and we’ll all lose a lot.
On the other hand, this could be an opportunity for another “McConell Comprimise”:
“Harry, you are going to tell The Big O to withdraw this nomination or I assure you the confirmation hearing will bring up ALL the things that should have been included in the report by the 911 Commission but weren’t. We’ll also ask a lot of questions about what he knew about Sandy Burglar, I mean Berger and when he knew it.”
We’ve been called racists enough now that it shouldn’t bother us any more.
-AChance, http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2009/11/03/what-men-may-do-we-have-done/#comment-24463
If NY23 was a beat down for Conservatives, what do you call what happened to Progressives in NJ and VA?
inspired by ColdWarrior, http://www.redstate.com/hooah_mac/2009/11/04/ny-23-the-agony-of-defeat-not-so-much/#comment-156
All for nothing
izoneguy Tuesday, January 6th at 9:43AM EST (link)is all that will result.
The gains of the terrorist fight will be wiped away in ONE day.
One day is all it will take for Obama to say “come on in and do what
you want” - because this is the opening the terrorists have been waiting for. The left just does not get it. All the procedures & policies were set up to get bad guys. And it has worked. Why would Obummer pick a no nothing about intelligence to run an intelligence agency? Because Obummer has no intelligence, he is a political creature and will be eaten alive by the rest of the world.
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
5 to the 100th power
peg_c Tuesday, January 6th at 10:20AM EST (link)Unbelievable, the utter nitwits and America haters set to run this country shortly. Every buffoon already proven to be incapable of governing and having no relationship with intelligence (in all meanings of the word) is amassed into a group that will go down in history.
I’m now utterly convinced only something truly catastrophic can right our ship, because as a nation we have utterly lost our way. God knows how many will be lost. This Clinton Admin III will take us a long way toward that catastrophe if not bring it about altogether.
Historians will marvel at the mindlessness of this age.
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.
Gird your loins
izoneguy Tuesday, January 6th at 1:16PM EST (link)Biden said it was coming. Do you think the terrorists are POed because we have such baffoons in charge now? Now if the terrorists attack - naw what am I thinking? Most leftys still think 9-11 was a right wing plot. One thing is for sure. If America does get attacked - whoever does it will get away with it. Obummer won’t do a thang….
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
I met Leon
Steven Tuesday, January 6th at 11:23AM EST (link)as a student at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. He and Daschle were there trolling for military officers who would say something bad about the Bush administration and its conduct of the war. He didn’t get many takers.
He told us that he started a foundation to encourage young people to get into public service, because so few young people seemed interested in being congressional pages and growing up to be legislators these days. I told him that if he really wanted to meet American kids whose hearts were set on public service he should visit Iraq. There are thousands of them there.
I don’t think he considers military members as being involved in public service. What more do we need to know?
There’s nothing quite so exhilerating as being shot at… and missed. Winston Churchill
As far as Obama is concerned, Panetta meets the only requirement for heading up the CIA
The_Gadfly Tuesday, January 6th at 1:20PM EST (link)He has dedicated himself to stopping torture, and everyone knows the CIA is the source of all torture. By putting Panetta in charge, the torture will finally end.
Ronald Reagan said it best, “The problem is so much of what [our] opponent[s] know, simply isn’t true”
We’ve been called racists enough now that it shouldn’t bother us any more.
-AChance, http://www.redstate.com/moe_lane/2009/11/03/what-men-may-do-we-have-done/#comment-24463
If NY23 was a beat down for Conservatives, what do you call what happened to Progressives in NJ and VA?
inspired by ColdWarrior, http://www.redstate.com/hooah_mac/2009/11/04/ny-23-the-agony-of-defeat-not-so-much/#comment-156
By putting Panetta in charge, the torture will finally end
izoneguy Tuesday, January 6th at 1:23PM EST (link)Says who?
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
Breaking....Pro-Panetta demonstrators demand end to torture...
$peciallist Tuesday, January 6th at 1:27PM EST (link)(thanks izoneguy…i’ve been waiting for an opening for this pic..lol)
Whannnahhhhh
izoneguy Tuesday, January 6th at 1:32PM EST (link)LOLOLOLOL
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
That's perfect!
woodsman Tuesday, January 6th at 1:43PM EST (link)Rosy has never looked better.