Yesterday, President-elect Obama announced two key members for his national security team: former Clinton chief-of-staff Leon Panetta to be director at the CIA and Admiral Dennis Blair to be national intelligence director. The Panetta appointment drew some grumbles from incoming intelligence committee chair Dianne Feinstein and exiting chair Jay Rockefeller—both quickly suggested they had no prior knowledge of the choice and expressed some reservations.These nominations need to go through Sen. Feinstein's committee, and she apparently told Mr. Obama that she would prefer Rep. Jane Harman (Democrat-CA).
I think the choices are not merely good, but inspired, and I see the friction with Feinstein and Rockefeller as a plus rather than a minus...
For eight years, while Rockefeller and Feinstein stood by, the agency was pressured by the [Bush administration] to validate its fairy tales. This did not serve the nation’s security interest. Sober analysis that does not fear political meddling needs to be restored.
Uhh...memo to DiFi. Barack Obama is the President-elect. Not you.
