I can think of no good reason that Leon Panetta shouldn't run the CIA. He's a grown up, like Larry Summers and that's one promising thing about the Obama appointments. He isn't a spook, but the CIA has been such a basket case for so long that it obviously needs someone from outside it to give it a good scrubbing. But the question of competence in the field is not the only objection to Panetta. In appointing him, Obama has been accused of politicizing intelligence. But the CIA was already highly politicized. The Valerie Plame kerfuffle was the result of a cover campaign waged by Plame and her husband, Joe Wilson, against the Bush Administration. Maybe you think that campaign was a good idea. I think the CIA should work for the President. Maybe Panetta can make sure than it does. Finally, Panetta was chosen because he is innocent of all the nasty things the Bush Administration did or was said to have to done, while it managed to reduce Al Qaeda from a worldwide organization with enormous financial resources and a safe haven in Afghanistan to a back-packing adventure around the Khyber Pass. That's good, because the Obama Administration is going to go on doing pretty much the same things Bush did, only it needs to pretend that it is innocent. Leon Panetta will help.
If there is reason to be uneasy, it is not that Panetta is unfit. It is that the Obama Administration is looking to be assembling a lot of Chiefs, and no coherent organization. Obama is one man. He has a bunch of Federal Departments to manage, each with its own Secretary or General at the top. He is also creating a bunch of Czars. How is all this going to work? I am guessing it's not. Look for a major reorganization around year two.
Finally, one good reason to choose Panetta: Tony Bennett can serve as a double.
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