Feinstein Explains Her Reticence About Panetta Nomination

[ProSense]

Feinstein Explains Her Reticence About Panetta Nomination

By Elana Schor - January 6, 2009, 1:09PM

Just talked with Dianne Feinstein outside the Senate chamber about her qualms with the Leon Panetta nomination. The incoming Senate intelligence committee chairman said that both President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden called her after the fact to discuss the surprise choice of Panetta, who has no direct intelligence agency experience and whose nomination came as unwelcome news to Feinstein when it broke yesterday.

"I understand their thinking" in choosing Panetta, Feinstein explained, describing herself as "very respectful of the president's authority ... this is the man (Obama has chosen)."

I asked Feinstein whether her reticence about Panetta's lack of ties to the CIA would be mitigated by having Steven Kappes, her preferred choice for CIA director, stay on as the agency's No 2. "I believe very strongly" that Kappes should stay, Feinstein said, adding that Panetta's standing would be "very much enhanced" were Kappes to stay his deputy.

Feinstein seemed to acknowledge the Obama team's desire to find a CIA director who would signal an end to the abusive interrogation tactics of the Bush years. "We all want a break with the past," she told the reporters milling around her in the Senate. "I was the one who went into the conference committee" between the House and the Senate last year with an amendment that would use the Army Field Manual as the universal standard for detainee interrogations, she added.

"I understand the administration's desire to cut clean and open a new chapter and I support that. Whether those changes can be made" with Panetta at the helm, she added, remains to be seen.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. What CIA needs is a very good manager

not James Bond it already has those

[rvablue]

18. And a budget guru....as they always say, "Follow the money." n/t

[Uzybone]

2. Why the fuck didnt she say this the first time?

She has made herself look very bad.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Obama dissed her and Rocky by having them learn of this appt. from the press.

That's just not the way you treat your committee heads when they are your own party.

[Windy]

10. You do when the members of your party are complicit in matters dealing with torture

and other breaches of rights and civil liberties along with the prior administration!!

[Solomon]

16. Thank you!

[uponit7771]

25. +1

[Cha]

23. Ooooops ..the neocon warwhore got

dissed.

[Hieronymus]

4. Well, that's nice. She ends with "remains to be seen". Di Fi is Republican lite.

[SuperTrouper]

7. DiFi is a Democrat but that "remains to be seen".

[knixphan]

31. seconded.

[BeyondGeography]

5. Reads like a diva bullshit-fest to me

:thumbsdown:

[Cha]

24. Knowing dinofi like we do for the last

8 years(for me anyway)..I'd say you were dead on.

[Pyrzqxgl]

6. Feinstein & Panetta don't much care for each other?

At least thats a rumor I've heard here in California going back quite a few years. It seems a shame if this is true
that this is personal & political and has nothing to do with the man's ability.

[bdamomma]

13. if it's a personal thing she better get over it, if the man can do the job

she should shut up.

[CreekDog]

8. I assume she didn't need to go public right away with her displeasure

that she could have contacted Obama directly.

at this point, with everything out on the table, Obama can't back off Panetta because it will be a very public admission of failure. Feinstein knows this. So by going public, the only thing this does is attempt to make Obama look bad.

i'm NOT a Feinstein fan and this sort of political game where she tries to appear "thoughtful" by taking on Democrats is bald face politics.

if you all recall, Feinstein opposed then voted for Medicare Part D on the basis of "trusting Senator Frist" and because there would be a 1% (one percent!) increase in funding of teaching hospitals (while the administration was gutting Medicaid with their other hand).

I'm done with her and I was one of her biggest fans for a LONG time.

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. I was the one who went into the conference committee" between the House and the Senate last year

with an amendment that would use the Army Field Manual as the universal standard for detainee interrogations,

...after FIVE FUCKING YEARS OF SUPPORTING BUSH'S TORTURE POLICY.

She needs to just STFU.

[bdamomma]

11. Why was she even named chairperson?

she is too untrustworthy.

[Raine1967]

12. She's getting ready to have the nomination blocked.

that is my gut feeling, especially after reading this Diary over at Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/6/10529/92336/656/680728

Feinstein & Rockefeller's both signed off on this stuff after they saw memos about it. She was one of the *gang of 8*.
I think it is a CYA thing for her, especially. She has seen sensitive papers and said yes, and now it seems as tho they are not constitutional.

Just an opinion. I think this opens to door for the Republicans to block this nomination. I hope I am wrong Panetta is a great choice.

[bdamomma]

14. I think this "blocking" of candidates to positions may be the norm

to some Senators (too many skeletons in their closets). Didn't they already say they (those filthy repigs) were going to postpone the Attorney General's confirmation, it is already starting, SOB's to obstruct practices of Obama's appointments.

[rvablue]

19. 99.9% highly doubtful that she or any other Democratic Senator are going to try

to block any of Obama's picks.

Do you have any recent historical references to a Senator blocking a presidential nomination from the same party?

I don't remember any....care to enlighten us?

[karynnj]

20. She was not one of the gang of 8

The gang of 8 Democrats were the Party leader and the Intelligence party leader in both the House and the Senate - depending on the time period, these were Bob Graham and Tom Daschle (2002), Rockefeller and Reid (2003 on) and Harmon and Pelosi.

Feinstein is the INCOMING chair of the Intelligence committee - she NOW for the first time becomes one of the 8.

[islandmkl]

15. dear di: I have been elected President of the United States of America...

I am attempting to appoint the people i think will help us correct our ship of state, especially after the egregious actions of our White House and Congress over the past 8 years. I would rather not dwell on the PAST actions of many involved...ahem...and instead proceed to move forward. I am hoping that you will see the need for changes, OF MANY NATURES, in the way we conduct the government's business. I appreciate your support, as I have in the past.

Sincerely,

Barack H. Obama
President-elect of the United States of America

ps - cover your ass with something other than my hands, you understand? bho

[JayMusgrove]

21. Brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eom

[gblady]

17. maybe....

this will help get all the laundry on the line for airing.

[Blarch]

22. Personally ...

I don't give a flying fuck what she says, after giving us Mukasey she should resign.

[Thrill]

26. I see she is still pushing for one of Bush's pro-torture guys to stay

NO. Send his ass packing

[Number23]

27. I actually agree with the reticence about Panetta

I understand and even appreciate what Obama is trying to do, but I still think it was entirely plausible for him to locate someone who is vehemently opposed to torture and still has an intelligence background.

[bottomtheweaver]

28. Panetta has plenty of intel background.

"Panetta was instrumental in creating CSU Monterey by converting Fort Ord, where he was chief of operations and planning of the intelligence section when he was in the army, into the university."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Panetta

I know, wiki, but frankly I could do a better job of running that shithole than the assholes running it now. Of course I'd be sending out a lot of pinkslips...

[Number23]

32. You're probably right

I could do a better job of running that shithole than the assholes running it now

We can certainly agree that the place has not been well managed over the last 8 years or so, but you could say that about every facet of the U.S. gov't under Bush.

But using the info in that very link that you sent, there would seem to be a much more compelling argument to have Panetta serving in an educational or even civil rights capacity than an intelligence one. His intelligence experience seems at least 30 years old.

[bottomtheweaver]

34. Well the CIA is only one of sixteen US intel agencies,

or so we're told, and his boss Dennis Blair, who will be the intel czar, is apparently a real Jack the Ripper, according to a story today on Democracy Now, so Panetta probably won't be able to accomplish all that much in the way of reform even if he wanted to:

"New Trouble for an Obama Nominee: Admiral Dennis Blair Aided Perpetrators of 1999 Church Killings in East Timor"

We also have learned, along with everyone else in the country, that the top intelligence chief will be Dennis Blair. Dennis Blair is the former head of Pacific Command, the former commander of the US military forces in the Pacific. He’s tapped to become the Director of National Intelligence, the nation’s top intelligence job, overseeing sixteen agencies. Blair played a critical role in backing the Indonesian occupation of East Timor during the ’90s.

http://i1.democracynow.org/2009/1/6/dennis_blair_obamas_nominee_for_director

[TheKentuckian]

29. This is about him not being a crony

There have been plenty of successful CIA heads that weren't in the field, Panetta has enough background to know what is going on and better what needs to go on.

[Number23]

33. Well, I just did an (admittedly cursory) look at past Directors

And it does seem as if the vast majority of them had quite significant intelligence experience.

[roody]

30. F**k warmonger DiFi---

I am ashamed that she is my Senator.

[GodlessBiker]

35. She did nothing in her oversight role. She should have no say.