Transition: How Panetta's playing
Posted: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 9:23 AM by Domenico Montanaro
The Washington Post: “President-elect Barack Obama stunned the national intelligence community by selecting Clinton White House chief of staff Leon E. Panetta, a longtime Washington insider with little intelligence experience, to serve as the next head of the CIA. The decision -- which was also met with wariness on Capitol Hill -- reflects a desire to change the intelligence power structure, officials close to the selection said yesterday. Obama has chosen retired Navy Adm. Dennis C. Blair as the director of national intelligence, a job he intends to reinforce as the ‘lead horse’ on intelligence issues, an official close to the selection process said.”
The New York Times: "The choice of Mr. Panetta comes nearly two weeks after Mr. Obama had otherwise wrapped up his major personnel moves. It appears to reflect the difficulty Mr. Obama has encountered in finding a candidate who is capable of taking charge of the agency but is not tied to the interrogation and detention program run by the C.I.A. under President Bush. Aides have said that Mr. Obama had originally hoped to select a C.I.A. director with extensive field experience, especially in combating terrorist networks. But his first choice for the job, John O. Brennan, had to withdraw his name amid criticism over his alleged role in the formation of the agency’s detention and interrogation program after the Sept. 11 attacks."
One of the under-covered aspects to the Bill Richardson fallout is the fact that his downfall means there's yet another vacuum in the Hispanic Democratic community. Who is the future national Hispanic star of the Democratic Party if it's not Richardson?
Speaking of Richardson, the Washington Post has one of those fun blame-game stories between transition officials and Richardson defenders. But one comment from a Richardson defender has us scratching out head. "Sources within the transition and the Justice Department said that Richardson had played down the importance of the probe and did not reveal that his office and staff could be at risk. The seriousness of the matter became apparent after the FBI began its own background check on Dec. 2. But Richardson's longtime aides defended his disclosures, noting that subjects under examination by a grand jury are rarely aware of its secret deliberations.”
“‘This was out there, and he told them,’ said a senior Richardson aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. ‘I feel that they just missed the boat on it. The FBI or the campaign or something. I don't think it's fair that this is being portrayed as him holding anything back.’”
So the Richardson defense is that they didn't hold back, but the transition missed this? With friends like these, does Richardson need enemies? Seriously, read between the lines of the Richardson aide -- it's not as if they are claiming there was nothing to find in the vetting process. Oy.
Speaking of the Commerce vacancy, the New York Daily News has an interesting piece of speculation: moving Tom Vilsack from Agriculture to Commerce as they have a deeper bench of ideas for Ag apparently?
Meanwhile, Tom Edsall reports that Bill Daley, a former Commerce secretary, and Laura D'Andrea Tyson are on the Commerce list as well.
Other speculation: Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, attorney Scott Harris (managing partner at DC's Harris, Wiltshire and Grannis), Leo Hindery (former CEO of the YES Network in New York, who was an economic adviser to John Edwards), Oracle President Charles Phillips. Latinos also compiled a list of 10 names, per Politico, including: Xavier Becerra, Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz. Others on the list: Federico Pena; former EEOC Chairman Gilbert Casellas, New York Rep. Nydia Velasquez, Antonio Perez (Eastman Kodak), Hector Ruiz (Advance Micro Devices), Paul Diaz (Kindred Healthcare), and Jose Maria-Alapont (Federal Mogul).
And the Boston Globe profiles Elena Kagan, Obama's pick to be solicitor general. "Kagan, who as an academic specialized in charting the limits of the president's regulatory authority and as an aide to President Clinton tested them, is expected to play a key role in Obama's efforts to redraw such powers. Obama has criticized the Bush administration for expanding the powers of the presidency."
