Another day, another clueless Clinton crony
Wow. Today is just one big, bad joke. Al Franken. Roland Burris. Bill Richardson. Now this:
Leon Panetta will head Obama’s CIA.
Another day, another clueless Clinton crony named to a top job for which he has no experience. The unqualified fish rots from the head down, after all. Via NYT. Damned scary:
President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday.
Mr. Panetta has a reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues, but has little hands-on intelligence experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take control of the agency most directly responsible for hunting senior Al Qaeda leaders around the globe, but one that has been buffeted since the Sept. 11 attacks by leadership changes and morale problems.
Given his background, Mr. Panetta is a somewhat unusual choice to lead the C.I.A., an agency that has been unwelcoming to previous directors perceived as outsiders, such as Stansfield M. Turner and John M. Deutch. But his selection points up the difficulty Mr. Obama had in finding a C.I.A. director with no connection to controversial counterterrorism programs of the Bush era.
Hey, maybe they’ll bring back Janet Reno for Commerce Secretary!
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I startin’ to get a reeeeaaaaallll bad feelin’ about this Obama guy . . .
Terrible appointment, but a great for our enemies!
Maybe Barry O can ask Vince Foster what torture is? This just keeps getting worse and worse.
Being unqualified for the position is the only qualification, apparently, for any Democrat from the top down. Of course, Obama COULD just appoint all his corrupt black cronies from Chicago and finish it.
Hopenchange actually means “Clinton Administration II”. I wonder if Obama will find Monica a job in the White House too? Bill probably still has her phone number, maybe he could get it from him.
Wonder what is under a rock of Penetta? It seems bho has a almost uncanny knack everyone he has named has a shaddy past. I’m sure if there are things to be found, it will be found by MM, HA, etc.
L
Clinton years redux.
But, it’s not all bad. If it’s so, there’s no reason for conservatives to get caught off guard. By studying the history of the cronies previous moves our POL’s should be there to head them off and beat them at the game.
Yup. We’re (democrat) partying like it’s 1999!
WTF is going on? This must be PeBO’s Harriet Myers mulligan.
More correct now.
I’m sorry, but this appointment makes no sense at all. Most of the previous ones I could see the justification, even if I disagreed with it. This one is senseless.
So how many days till our first “Intelligence Failure”? I’m going to say it happens by day 100.
My idea to fly my flag upside down after January 20 is looking better and better every day!
Leon Panetta is going to provide Obama with the intellegence reporting he WANTS, not what he SHOULD HAVE. I forsee a near wholesale reduction in the number of experienced CIA analysts. They will be replaced by bureaucratic hacks who know what the boss wants to hear.
These friends-of-Clinton appointments just shows what a rookie the President-Elect is. He hasn’t been at this political stuff long enough to acquire any real buds of his own.
This will be a fun and interesting 4 years. Reid and Pelosi will run circles around this guy.
So much for “hope and change” and not being your typical politician and coming in from the outside! All Obama has done is just put in a bunch of Clinton people. So, what are the dim Democrats who voted for him thinking now? Hmmm…he sure pulled a fast one on all you Dems!
Leon Panetta? I’ve heard that name before. Somewhere. Can’t place it.
If the NYT admits he “has little hands-on intelligence experience”, what would it take for the Senate not to confirm him? Who do we need to start calling… crap, I’m in Virginia, I’m stuck with Webb and M. Warner. I miss living in a red state already.
I sense a pattern in Obama’s appointments. By and large they have a very well-crafted public personna. Like Obama himself. It’s a cabinet of rock stars, a veritable Comstock Lode of celebrities.
Leon Panetta IS one oily political hack that is to be sure with his only qualification being a Obama sycophant. But this quote:
The CIA has set itself up as a shadow government beholden only to itself. Like much of the Federal Bureaucracy it is filled with left leaning government only loyal dead heads. Until WE can get back in and have a President with the stones to clean house I am sure Leon Panetta will fit right in at Butt Covering.
100 days seems about right.
We are so screwed.
Pray for our men and women in the field who may have to take direction from this, this novice.
The CIA in this case, it is the “Clintonian Inept Associates.” What better way to avoid investigations/prosecutions, than to have your own people in the positions which to deflect them? It worked with Janet Reno, did it not?
Remind me again…who was elected
QueenPresident? More and more change? Hillary gets her (own) administration after all…unless the pusillanimous members of the Republican Party grow a spine, and actually delve into the Clinton Family closet of skeletons.The associations they have with the Chinese Government, the Russian oil Baron, and Middle Eastern oil magnates (political campaign contributors, all) should disqualify her, once and all, from ever holding federal office again.
In regards to the man making this selection…
Fact Checking Annenberg Political Fact Check
They made at least two very clear factual errors.
If you’re a conservative, you think the CIA botched the Iraq invasion intelligence, so that the agency is incompetent and needs an outside leader.
If you’re a liberal, you think the agency has become corrupt after 8 years of Bush and needs a house cleaning.
Either way, a competent outside administrator will be good for the agency. That’s what Panetta is.
Every Clintinista appointed to the Obama administration makes Barry look more and more like an affirmative action pick surrounded by his minders.
this is insane!!!!! he was part of the group of idiots who did nothing except gut the intel community throughout the 90’s and led to multiple attacks which ultimately brought down the WTC!!!
this is scary but at the same time expected with the large exodous of qualified agents heading for the hills in fear of another clinton administration
I’m seeing government of the liberal democrats, by the liberal democrats, and for the liberal democrats. WE are being given the privilege of paying for it all.
Gee, I was hoping they would bring the Sopranos seris back with some new episodes. My wish has been granted! Coming, in January 2009, THE SOPRANOS, FEDERAL-STYLE!
Sounds like Barry is sitting down and studying on who would be the best in this or that position. However, odds are that all these clintonistas back in the mix was the price he had to pay to the Clinton machine for his presidency.
The machine is running smooth and quiet.
Guess who’s in control!
On January 5th, 2009 at 6:06 pm, Kevin K. said:
Replace “liberal democrats” with “Democratic Socialist Communists” or “Communist Party” …
Seriously, tell me how the priorities of the Democrat[ic Socialist] Party are any different from the priorities of the Communist Party USA:
I want what you’re smoking!
Monica Crowley pretty much concurs.
http://monicamemo.typepad.com/weblog/2009/01/four-reactions.html
Look, the Clinton White House and the slimy Panetta led more black bag operations (granted they were all political/donation gathering) that worked than the CIA has in years.
The CIA is already stocked fully with Panetta’s ile.
Secret Agent girl, Plame is the typical spook today. The few warriors they have had to leave for years, to go to private institutions so the dainty CIA doesn’t get its hand’s dirty.
President Bush didn’t clear it out when he could, so now we just have them having a boss that is already on of their own.
This is hilarious. Obama’s appointing all these Clintonistas because he hasn’t the first clue what to do with the office now that he’s actually been elected to it, and he thinks they do.
The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if this is Hillary’s compensation for giving up the nomination. Whether she got it or not, we would have a third Clinton term inflicted upon us.
Anyway… On January 5th, 2009 at 6:25 pm, Tennessee Dave said:
Ew, I don’t. It could turn you into a barking moonbat.
I have to let my paranoid, cynical side out for minute here.
Seems a bit odd to me that the Clintons had such big roles at the DNC wing ding, Shrillery is now in line to be SecState and so many of the Clintonistas are coming back to town. Billy-boy’s name has actually come up multiple times as a candidate for {shudder to think} Supreme Court Justice!
At some point, an extended period of related coincidence(s) (coincidii?) need to be examined a bit more closely.
WOW. This virtually guarantees that we will be hit with another terrorist attack in the next four years because our enemies NOW KNOW we have no plans to pursue them vigorously…just as Clinton didn’t. Any and all possibilities will be treated as law enforcement matters and not as national security matters. Just look at the border!!!
The more our media treats him as a celebrity, the more he will be viewed as a joke of a president by the world.
By reinstalling the most lax, inexperienced security figures of the modern era – Clinton’s peeps who allowed the most number of unresponded or unprosecuted terror attacks in US History – he is proving himself to be very dangerous for the safety and security of our (their?) country.
I feel confident we will be hit with another large attack on American soil…I just hope it isn’t mushroom shaped.
I have a feeling that if Panetta is confirmed, he will do nothing more than fill an empty seat. The CIA will continue to run, and allow him some credit; give him just enough to make some decisions that will justify him being there, while the major decisions are decided and carried out elsewhere. In other words, daily briefings on nothing substantial with minor decisions and committee naming.
We’re screwed. Leon Panetta? What was he thinking? (smoking?)
Wow, putting in someone with absolutely NO intelligence, law enforcement, security or military experience in charge of one of the most important agencies in our country.
Unbelievable.
But then again, the stupid herd mentality crowd just voted the most inexperienced person as president, all because he “looked” cool.
It wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t get attacked again in the first year. The jihadists must be besides themselves just laughing at us now.
This is yet another step in the long downhill slide that our Country, dying of liberlism, is in. America’s glory days are gone, gone, goneeeeeeeee.
He does have some military experience; here’s his bio.
He also served as a member of the Iraq Study Group.
I’m definitely not saying any of this in support of Obama selected him as head of the CIA. Just wanted to set the record straight.
selected = selecting.
Why not just bring in Jamie Gorelick to start rebuilding that wall she made so famous; Makes about as much sense; To say PEBO is in over his head is to say the Titanic is just a tad bit below the surface of the North Atlantic.
With every passing day I try to rationalize the disaster I see unfolding in this nation by telling myself “Well, it could be worse” and sure enough, everyday I prove myself right. I think I am going to stop saying that.
The Panetta pick is downright irresponsible. Even Feinstein is pissed off about this, and when Senate Democrats are indicating they may oppose this, you know you’ve screwed up. The “smoothest transition in the history of the country” crap needs to go out the window NOW. Between this and Bill Richardson, I know my confidence in Obama’s judgment has sunk even lower.
Fair enough. “He served as a First Lieutenant in the Army from 1964 to 1966 and received the Army Commendation Medal.” So, he rose to the immensely high rank of 1LT. I’m blown away. His depth of experience and knowledge must be endless. And he got an ARCOM? Just about everyone gets one of those when they leave the service (at least for officers). Privates get that award for a yearlong deployment to Iraq. This is not meant to disparage the Private or 1LT ranks or the ARCOM. I know you’re not supporting him, 30. This was not an attack on you at all. Thanks for putting this info on here. I’m merely trying to show how woefully unprepared this man is for the job. Obama never ceases to amaze me with his ineptness.
Anyone know when Obama makes his selection of Sec. of Army, Navy, etc.?
No problem at all. You’re welcome.
Mookie,
Here’s some info., on the Sec. of the Navy. More research is needed for the rest.
lgm,I guess it is fine with you that we get a stooge that needs OJT while we are at war?He is one of the big reasons we got hit before.
When queried, representatives from the U.A.E. responded. “Praise Allah! We couldn’t be more pleased with the cabinet selections of Barack Hussein Obama! This latest selection is even better than we could’ve pai…er…prayed for. It is good to see the U.S. on this enlightened path.”
Hey – I had my letter to the editor published in the WSJ today. It was in response to a story titled “Treasury to Ford…Drop Dead”
“It’s unfortunate that GM and Chrysler didn’t get a chance to hear from the American car-buying public before accepting their bailouts from the Treasury. Many of us who opposed the bailout vowed to never buy another car from any company that accepted federal money. I own a Chevy Tahoe and I love it but I’ll never buy another GM or Chrysler product. Ford will get my next vehicle purchase — as long it rejects government intervention, that is. So my message to GM, Chrysler, the Treasury, the United Auto Workers union, and Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the gang is — Drop Dead.”
Surprised no one’s pointed this out yet, but this article gives a great “name that party” moment:
Not knowing either of these names, I had to turn to good old google to figure out who appointed these “unwelcome” directors. There are two of them, so one’s probably from a dem and one from a republican, right? Right?
Wrong. Turner was appointed by Carter, Deutch by Clinton. What a surprise. Wonder why that wasn’t mentioned in the original article…
Bill White is the reason I asked. Imus has been close friends with White for years and said this morning that there is no one who would make a better Sec. of the Navy. Col. Jack Jacobs feels the same way. Could be interesting.
Meant to post to the UAW article. My bad.
On the Bright side: When terrorist do hit us again and the Clinton retreads decide to bomb rock piles there are a lot of rock piles to choose from. I hear there is a really big rock in Mecca.
When Barack Hussein, Allah Be Praised, BroBama decides to suck up to the ayatollahs will he send a Bible or a koran? He can call Carter for advice. Just do not let our people sit captive for 444 days BroBama.
No, lgm. If you’re a conservative, you know for a fact that the CIA is laden with Clinton bootlickers that did whatever they could to hurt President Bush.
If you’re a liberal, you can’t understand why the CIA resists liberalism because you think it’s working fine in the Directorate of Foreign Affairs (State Department).
In other words, the BO didn’t want a CIA director that is on the same side of the terrorism issue as the intelligent people of this country that are actually concerned with national security.
Which means he knows just how to screw the american taxpayer to the best of his liberal indoctrination.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Where’s the change? We’re left with no HOPE!
Let us not forget that Admiral Stansfield M. Turner is from the same Turner family that gave this country Richmond Kelly Turner. Read this book by Admiral Edwin Layton. It tells how the incompentence of Admiral R.K. Turner was the leading cause of the intelligence SNAFU before Pearl Harbor. Stansfield Turner was an incompetent, pushy, dominating, loudmouth, too.
My worry is that since they hit the east coast last time, next time they’ll hit the west coast. Since I live in the People’s Socialist Quagmire of California, I’m concerned.
That’s different from a liberal point of view. The liberals would have had an orgasm if Cheyenne, WY or Anchorage, AK were attacked during the Bush administration. Seeing as those are fairly conservative states. It would have been the attitude of, if conservatives lose, Bush loses, so it’s all good.
I take the opposing view. Personally, I think the BO is the world’s only living brain donor. BUT, I want him to do the right thing and protect this country. I know that if the BO loses, the country loses. Liberals just can’t get that.
ITookTheRedPill said (#30)
The Dems are not so honest. I can’t imagine the Dems saying this outright. (I see the CPUSA has recently revised its constitution as the language and terms are current for the trends of the last couple of years.) I don’t think the Dems would invoke Lenin, although they seem to like most of his programs (but there may be resistance to Lenin’s New Economic Program as it relied upon small capitalism to feed to country and keep daily life going until he could get more control.)
Oh, and the Dems would be more restrictive as to which parties overseas they would work with–would have to be the right people, who bow at the altar of Global Warming (not just environmentalism).
————-
Mookie said re potential nominee for SecNav (#53)
It could indeed be interesting. As the top civilian, his sexual activities, so long as discrete and non-blackmailable are not a scandal or against the rules. Awkward, yes. But if “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and related topics don’t come up, then his preferences will be irrelevant in an institutional/managerial sense.
And on Day 101 blaming Bush starts.
Hey Obama, I know operators that can embarrass Leon in a heartbeat.
It’s one thing for a prez elect to nominate an imbecile. It’s another thing that the imbecile accepts the job.
Two pigs in a poke.
Our intelligence community has just taken a swan dive into the boiling cauldren of America last, the rest of the liberal multicultural society first.
Thank god for the second amendment. My grand children will appreciate those of us who INSIST on the right to bear arms so that their children won’t bear the harm that a lack of civilian arms will inevitably place on their freedom of expression and an inevitable tour de force of a liberal machine that worries more about gun rights than it does about the constitution.
Leon you are not CIA material, you are a punk who toes the party line.
Obama, you are crisis that our great country will eventually overcome.
That’s a fact jack.
LGM,,, I am going out on a limb here and see if you can answer the basic question. What war in this century, the 20th or 19th went as planned????. What was intelligence perfect???. CIA directors should be qualified with some field experience and giving it a person who has none is giving the chance for bungled intelligence a greater chance then perhaps a qualified candidate. By the way Obama is releasing Gitmo guys in your neighborhood.
Obama is not the first liberal Democrat to use the CIA as a place to reward liberal supporters with no background in national intelligence. Jimmy Carter tried to give ole Kennedy hand Theodore Sorenson the CIA director position. Sorenson had been an early Carter supporter. Before Carter could complete the appointment, it turned out that Sorenson had been a conscientous objector to the US military draft during WW11. Seems incredible but it’s all true.
The CIA will be spending ALOT more time spying on enemies of the Clintons, both real and imagined. Obama just stuck his head in a noose with this pick. Soon there will be smooth sailing for Hillary’s run in 2012 against Biden.
Given Obamas choice it would seem that Pee Wee Herman was not available to take the position, so The One decided to go with someone less qualified?
Talk about bottom of the barrel. Now the drive-bys are saying writing something about spies qualifies as experience enough to head the CIA.
From Yahoo.
To borrow a common refrain from sniveling leftists before the war in Iraq started, “I need MORE evidence!”
Well, at least we won’t have to worry about the CIA politicizing intelligence.
/sarc-off>
Not that he would actually possess active brain cells otherwise, but B-Zero is being played like a violin by the DC Machine!
Makes me SICK and scares the very life outa’ me!
Isn’t that Blonde Bimbo available? Valerie Plame? After all, wasn’t she like – the heart and soul of the CIA – the genius behind proving that Iraq was never interested in Uranium?
Obama bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Panetta will do wonders for the CIA budget as he and the Dems work hard to decrease our security. The cost? Just the lives of Americans. But what the hell. Obama and the Dems blame Americans for everything anyway.
My guess is Putin was not available.
And there you have it folks, a perfect summation of the Liberal thought process: making the facts subordinate to politics.
There can’t really be any argument about the CIA botching our pre-invasion intelligence. They did, period. That’s an objective fact. Their performance is somewhat mitigated by the fact that everyone else on Earth also got it wrong, but the fact remains they were 100% wrong.
And when have Liberals ever not thought that the CIA was corrupt? The military too, for that matter.
This is one more example of how the Democrats see the world. Left-wing politics uber alles and to hell with the job they’re actually supposed to be doing. And that’s what we’ll have as long as our population tolerates it.
Hahahahah! You definitely need to read what Dick Morris has to say about this nominee, as well as several of Obama’s other designates.
TooMuchTime said (#56):
James Felix said (#73):
(Thinking means doubting. Certainty is for fools.)
But then you should agree with my larger point: If you think the CIA is incompetent, you should welcome an outsider coming in to fix it.
I’ve never understood how some political hack can be put in charge of anyagency, This only happens in Government and in non-profit.
Panetta: No experience, no acumen, and no innate aptitude to be instrumental and forceful in a job that demands nothing less to keep us all safe!
He’s a loser nominee and will not be approved by the senate; Senator Feinstein as much as said so.
If the Democrats are in charge and want to appoint a Democrat, how in the world could they have not appointed Rep. Jane Harman from CA to that position.
Even as a Conservative, she has always impressed me with her service on the House Intelligence Committee. She would have been a superb choice. She would have been unanimously confirmed in 10 minutes.
But then Pelosi hates her so…..
Oh, please MM…don’t give him any ideas! *shudder*
No, mindlessly parroting cliches is for fools.
Did the CIA make assertions about Saddam’s capabilities, pre-war? Yes. Were those assertions incorrect? Yes. Can one therefore say that they botched pre-invasion intelligence? Yes.
Contrary to the dearly held notion of Liberals, there are such things as facts.
Sure I would. But it does not logically follow that I’d welcome someone solely because they’re an outsider. I’d prefer someone who’s, you know, actually qualified for the job. Call me crazy but that’s what I think.
James Felix said (#80):
A quandary. Having “experience” means having been in the intelligence world, hence, not an outsider.
This information is classified. But there have been reports that what came from the CIA was more accurate than what was fed to the American people. Without knowing for sure, I guess that the “inaccuracies” were in fact “distortions” by the White House.
I understand if you think I’m wrong, but I doubt that you know for sure. If you think you do, that speaks ill if you.
That should read, unusual unless you want to undermine or destroy the C.I.A.
Wrong. The CIA does not need an administrator; it needs a competent and experienced leader.