(Jake Turcotte / AP photo)
It’s drizzling on Obama’s post-election honeymoon
By David Cook | 01.06.09
After a presidential transition notable for its smoothness and strong public approval, it has started to drizzle on Barack Obama’s post-election honeymoon.It was widely reported Monday that Mr. Obama would name former Congressman and White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta to run the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Panetta is a much-respected figure in Washington but has no hands-on experience with intelligence operations. His nomination was greeted with criticism by several influential Congressional Democrats.
Meanwhile, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico held a press conference Monday to explain why he decided to withdraw from consideration to be Commerce Secretary, a position for which Obama had selected him Richardson’s move came in response to an investigation of whether a California firm had made improper political contributions to political committees linked to Richardson in order to win state business in New Mexico. The investigation had been widely reported in the press. Richardson strongly denies any wrongdoing.
Then there are the fiscal storm clouds. After a five-minute ride in the rain Tuesday morning from the Hay Adams Hotel to his transition office, President-elect Obama was scheduled to meet with his economic team to discuss the outlook for the federal budget. Current projections are for Obama’s first budget to post a record-shattering deficit of more than one trillion dollars.
In the run-up to Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration, the dust up over the selection of a CIA director is likely to be longer lasting and more significant than questions over why Obama’s transition team did not pay more attention to published reports of alleged wrong doing in New Mexico.
The Obama transition team is already at work to find a replacement for Richardson. The San Antonio Express-News reports that Congressman Xavier Becerra is being considered for the Commerce post. The Obama team is clearly looking for another Hispanic politicians to replace Richardson, a prominent Hispanic who threw his support to Obama after unsuccessfully running for president himself.
The controversy over Panetta’s selection underscores the difficulty the Obama team had in finding someone to run the CIA. Their goal was to find someone that they did not feel was tainted by an association with President Bush’s intelligence policies, including harsh interrogations, wireless wiretapping, and the secret transfer of prisoners to other governments. In November, John Brennan, a top intelligence adviser to the president-elect, withdrew from consideration for the CIA post after protest from human rights groups, arguing he had not been critical enough of the Bush administration’s policies.
Diane Feinstein, the California Democrat who will chair the Senate Intelligence Committee in the new Congress, responded pointedly to reports of Panetta’s pending selection. “I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,” she said in a statement. Feinstein went on to say that, “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”
Meanwhile, Congressional Quarterly quoted an aide to West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller, the outgoing Democratic Chairman of the Intelligence Committee, as saying, “Sen. Rockefeller has some concerns about his selection. Not because he has any concerns about Panetta, whom he thinks very highly of, but because he has no intelligence experience and because he has believed this has always been a position that should be outside of the political realm.”
Panetta has an impressive resume that includes serving eight terms representing the Monterey area of California. He oversaw billions in secret intelligence spending as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Panetta later served as White House Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton and had access to the most sensitive intelligence information. In 2006, he was chosen to serve on the Iraq Study Group, a bi-partisan committee established at the urging of Congress.
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2. proud american | 01.06.09
I am proud to say I know Mr. Panetta he is from part of the world Monterey and I am proud to say he did his job and did it well as a congressman. And he worked well on the Clinton Administration.
4. david z | 01.06.09
Obama is looking for another “Hispanic” politician for the commerce position? Why? Do Hispanics have some special skill for this? I have to say, I support Obama and I think he has a lot of potential, but the choices he made for cabinet seem to have mostly political reasoning behind them. Hillary for Secretary of State (18 million votes)? The Israeli guy for chief of staff, Hispanic for commerce, Gates for Defense.. a Bush figure?
All those decisions increased Obama’s political capital and influence, but are the people themselves really qualified for the specific position they were chosen for? I hope he knows what he is doing! He might end up with a cabinet that represents America in culture and demographics but underperforms!
5. Charles Griffith | 01.06.09
….Use his needed talents elsewhere, C.I.A. leaders should come from within the intelligence community only.
6. paula mathis | 01.06.09
Panetta is likeable and knowledgable but not in these matters. The CIA should have a very experienced person at the helm.
7. johnnieB | 01.06.09
So, where’s the “change”? His appointments are all old Clinton cronies and long-time Washington insiders.
8. Stryse | 01.06.09
Oh joy. More record deficit spending. Has anyone else caught on yet that the root cause of this economic mess is the ‘buy-on-credit’ mentality? Of course our government has been buying on credit since what, the last great depression?
Live within our means nation.
9. John01 | 01.06.09
It rains on a parade. If it’s just a little bit, it drizzles on a parade.
Honeymoons begin, then they’re over and the real marriage begins.
OK, maybe it rains during a honeymoon, but not on it.
Bad mixed metaphors aren’t necessary. Even in a news blog.
And headlines that repeat the catch phrase of the lead aren’t useful either.
10. mcc | 01.06.09
I’m not exactly sure why “Dianne Feinstein and Jay Rockefeller disapprove” is supposed to be viewed as a negative or “drizzling”. The specific Congressional dems who are complaining about the Panetta pick have deep complicity in the intelligence abuses of the Bush years; they have no credibility on this issue. Rank and file Democrats on the other hand are celebrating right now (possibly for the first time since the election).
11. MikeS | 01.06.09
After 6 1/2 decades of being a US citizen, I must say that I would like to see my country clean up it’s act and get back in the business of just being a country of the people, for the people, by the people. The selling off of America to companies because of the number of people they employ, does not legitimize their influence of bringing about bad policies and negative results for America and it’s government. If Mr. Panetta is selected by the President to improve this job, then get out of his way and see if they can turn this bloated ship around. Look at America, and what it could have done these last 62 years of my life, if it had only known the real truth about itself and it’s leaders poor decisions. Let’s help President Obama turn the page and see if we can’t get the wrinkles out, and bring the focus to the peoples’ issues.
12. Valerie | 01.06.09
Considering he hasn’t even assumed office yet, it’s hard for it to be drizzling on his ‘post election honeymoon’. The honeymoon only really starts after office is assumed….
13. anabasis | 01.06.09
So an appointee has to be critical of President Bush to be considered for a job?Have we got so politicalized that we can only have political hacks in charge of our security?Will we ask our CIA experts who they voted for before we accept their judgements?Now this “Change” is scary.Will it get to the point that we don’t warn the public because it may lower approval ratings?I want the best,I don’t care about their politics,but cold hard facts.
14. Robert David STEELE Vivas | 01.06.09
Obama has made three mistakes that I can tell:
1) He dismissed Independents, Libertarians and all others throughout his campaign and hence did not get their financial contributions, and as a result had to run up some very big markers with Wall Street to get all the funding possible once he broke his promise to match John McCain on public financing.
That having been said, he won, McCain had a crummy staff, and as much as I like Sarah Palin, we got the right outcome.
2) In forming his Cabinet, he failed to consult Cynthia McKinney, Ron Paul, Ralph Nader, or Chuck Baldwin. He is running a straight up “winner take all” bi-opoly program. It makes me sick to my stomach to hear Reid and others pontificate about “bi-partisan.” Bi-partisan means TWO–the two parties “Running on Empty” that are in “Breach of Trust” and a “Broken Branch.” If Obama does not reach out to the two thirds of the country that did NOT vote for him, he will fail to be all he can be.
3) He should have consulted the Senate leadership and the intelligence committee members, but he should also have clued in the leadership of ALL the committees, committees that today get ZERO decision support from anyone, lobbyists and CRS not-withstanding. Similar, Cabinet officers get no decision support, they are at the mercy of their financial stakeholders. I have both a two page op ed and a 16 page article at http://www.oss.net/HILL that I invite you and your readers to consider. It’s time we create a Smart Nation and produce intelligence on ALL ten high-level threats to humanity, with decision support on ALL twelve core policies from Agriculture to Water, and that we do so not only for the President, but for the Cabinet, Assistant Secretaries, actions officers, and Congressional Committeess as well as the UN and allies and non-governmental organizations.
Panetta is NOT a mistake. He’s held the two toughest jobs in the Executive, Diretor of OMB (which a number of commentators overlook) and Chief of Staff to the President, the virtual COO position. He knows what the Preident and the Cabinet need, and he knows how to get a return on investment, something the secret world has not provided since the late 1970’s. It may also be that Admiral Blair’s Top Secret orders are to do away entirely with the DNI position and staff, restoring Panetta to the traditional DCI role. That would be a good thing–virtually everyone, with perhaps five exceptions–now on the DNI staff is a former loser who was over-promoted to a new level. We should have cut the IC in half after 9-11, and launched multiple new initiatives including the Open Source Agency since recommended by the 9-11 Commission (page 413).
Right now, CIA needs integrity and balanced judgement. I am one of the handful of officers who both faxed Hayden directly telling him not to fall prey to the macho-ignorance of the CIA, and I also signed the letter to John McCain against torture (the list me under my matronymic, Vivas instead of STEELE Vivas. CIA cannot be trusted by the President for multiple reasons. My advice to them: be glad you are not on the list for eradication, embrace Panetta as a savior, and stop making petty comments about a man you know nothing about who is easily your superior in every sense of the word.
See Op-Ed, White Paper, and GLOBAL TRENDS 2025 Critique at http://www.oss.net/HILL.
15. Lon | 01.06.09
This is ridiculous. The man has not yet taken office, and already there has been more analysis of Mr. Obama’s administration than was performed on the first 100 days of the G. W. Bush administration.
16. David | 01.07.09
The need for this country is so grteat that the honeymoon is over 20 Jan. BO needs to make his mark as soon as he is confirmed. We do not have time to let him feel comfortable. After all, he wanted the job.
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Jimmy Orr has worked in politics for the majority of his professional career working for two U.S. Senators, two Governors and one President. Most recently, Orr served as White House Spokesman and Internet Director for President George W. Bush and Special Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger for Internet Communications.
David Cook is Washington bureau chief of The Christian Science Monitor and host of the Monitor's newsmaker breakfasts. He was the Monitor's editor from 1994 to 2001. Cook is a graduate of Principia College, served in the U.S. Army, was a Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University, and is a member of the Gridiron Club, Washington's oldest journalistic organization.
1. roger lehnert | 01.06.09
here we go again!! the media is making news and not reporting it. frankly i am not the least interested in the media. tell me what is the “political realm?” roger