Malia and Sasha Obama went off to their new school this morning in Washington, DC. Their father, the president-elect, arrived last night at the family’s pre-inaugural quarters at the Hay Adams Hotel.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … C.I.A.: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK.
** … BUT DIFI IS MIFFED ABOUT PANETTA PICK FOR C.I.A. DIRECTOR. It turns out that President-elect Barack Obama didn’t consult either outgoing Senate Intelligence Committee chair Jay Rockefeller or incoming chair Dianne Feinstein. Though DiFi has frequently been lumped together with fellow Californian Panetta as a potential Democratic gubernatorial candidate, she doesn’t seem thrilled about the former White House chief of staff and federal budget director’s appointment as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
“‘I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,’ said Senator Feinstein, who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress.
” ‘My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.’”
I believe she’ll come around.
** WHITMAN EDGES FURTHER TOWARD GOVERNOR’S RACE. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has stepped down from three corporate boards – Procter & Gamble, DreamWorks Animation, and eBay – in advance of a possible run for California governor.
Whitman, a billionaire Republican, was national co-chair of the McCain for President campaign and national finance co-chair of the Romney for President campaign. She recently lost top Republican consultants Steve Schmidt and Adam Mendelsohn.
Should she decide to run, the former FTD CEO will face a tough primary against another super-rich Republican from Silicon Valley, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the apparent GOP frontrunner with the backing of a majority of Republican legislators. Either would face a difficult time in a California general election, probably against former Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown, a two-time runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Both Whitman and Poizner were campaign officials for John McCain, who was crushed in California by President-elect Barack Obama, 61% to 37%.
** LEON PANETTA TO BE NEW C.I.A. DIRECTOR. Former White House chief of staff and California Congressman Leon Panetta is Barack Obama’s pick to be the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta, who long chaired the House Budget Committee before serving in Bill Clinton’s Cabinet as director of the Office of Management and Budget, has little previous direct experience in the intelligence field, although he was a key member of the Iraq Study Group and as former OMB chief has a handle on the intelligence budget.
But he’s a widely respected figure with strong roots in the pragmatic center/left of the Democratic Party.
Panetta played a lead role in corraling Hillary Clinton supporters to come over to the Obama camp after the freshman Illinois senator’s nomination victory had become evident to most. He described some of the diehard Clintonites as having a sense of “entitlement.”
His selection points up the difficulty Obama has had in filling the post. Too many intelligence professionals can be linked to the highly controversial practices of the Bush/Cheney Administration on torture, rendition, and widespread surveillance. Even LA Congresswoman Jane Harman, who wanted the post, had problems in that area for supporting some of the Bush/Cheney moves. Panetta is a strong opponent of torture.
Panetta will work with and under retired Admiral Dennis Blair, who I noted not long after Obama’s election was going to be Obama’s director of national intelligence.
Panetta, who had been talked up several times as potential candidate for governor of California, has been heading up his own public policy center at Cal State Monterey Bay. An ally of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was the featured guest at a big fundraiser for the Panetta Center in late 2008, Panetta has also been a co-chair of a new centrist political reform outfit called California Forward. Obviously, he’ll be too busy for that now.
Panetta is also on the board of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), whose poll NWN subscribes to.
** CARS STILL SKIDDING. US car sales continue their tailspin. GM posted a 31% drop in U.S. light-vehicle sales for December, while Ford reported a 32% fall. Even Toyota, frequently held out as the global car exemplar, saw a 37% decline, and Honda saw sales drop 35%, closing out the auto industry’s worst year in more than 15 years. Chrysler is set to report its figures later today. So much for the notion that we don’t need an economic stimulus.
The Morning Column: MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
A very big week on tap in presidential politics, geopolitics, and California politics. President-elect Barack Obama is now in Washington. He has meetings today with the vice president-elect, congressional leaders and his economic team on the big economic stimulus package he will propose. Later in the week, he’s expected to give a major address on the economic crisis, probably at a venue outside Washington.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden is going to Pakistan later this week, leading a congressional delegation, to urge resolution of the Mumbai crisis. Pakistan, acknowledging a significant Pakistani connection to the terrorist siege of India’s commercial center of Mumbai over Thanksgiving, has promised action but not delivered much, and preparations for war continue, with ill affects for the US strategy in deeply troubled Afghanistan.
Israel’s ground offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas continues as well, as do Hamas rocket attacks into Israel. Obama has been notably silent on the matter, and the US blocked a UN Security Council move for an immediate ceasefire over the weekend.
Russia, continuing its political moves to destabilize the Ukrainian government and block NATO expansion to its borders, cut off natural gas supplies to the former Soviet republic, citing its failure to pay. In response, Ukrainians are taking some of the natural gas flow through pipelines transiting the country intended for other European nations, accelerating the crisis.
Back to presidential politics. One-third to two-fifths of Obama’s emerging stimulus plan will be various tax cuts, mostly targeted for consumers, who continue to sit on their wallets. The rest of the plan will be heavy spending on infrastructure and green tech and jobs development. The plan won’t be passed by Congress by the date of Obama’s inauguration, January 20th.
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has been selected as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee by President-elect Barack Obama.
Obama is likely getting a boost today with Minnesota poised to certify comedian Al Franken as the winner of that razor-close Senate race over Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. But it’s not clear what the Senate is going to do with embattled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s pick to replace Obama, former state Attorney General Roland Burris. On the other hand, it looks like Obama’s friend Caroline Kennedy is about to be named to replace Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton as New York’s junior senator.
Obama also needs a new commerce secretary, with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrawing over the weekend as it became clear a federal grand jury probe into his administration wouldn’t be completed in a timely fashion. There are allegations that a California financial firm I’d never heard of got a state contract in return for donations.
And on the ceremonial front, President Bush hosts a luncheon for Obama on Wednesday with all the other living presidents: His father, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.
Meanwhile, back in California, the Legislature reconvenes for its new session with, as usual, the state’s chronic budget deficit foremost on the agenda. On New Year’s Eve, Governor Arnold Schwarznegger put forward a budget proposal consisting of new taxes, cuts, and borrowing. And so the game begins, not anew, but renewed.
** OBAMA TODAY. Having checked in to the Hay Adams Hotel on Sunday afternoon, and with his daughters safely off this morning to their first day of school at Sidwell Friends, President-elect Barack Obama is in Washington for his daily intelligence/national security briefing, and meetings with his economic team and top congressional leaders.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Returned from his vacation at his home in Sun Valley, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions today in and around the Capitol. He has no scheduled public appearances.
** OBAMA: VACATION’S END. With brand new, and extremely positive, signs from the Gallup Poll that his transition is more than weathering criticism from the left and the right, President-elect Barack Obama’s Hawaiian sojourn is at its end.
It’s that bittersweet time for Obama, a time that we all know, in between the end of the vacation and the renewal of work.
Obama had what appears to have been a lovely working vacation in his native Hawaii, our Pacific paradise which is a source of calming solace for the 44th president.
I hope he’s recharged his batteries from a rough though ultimately commanding election campaign in 2007 and 2008. The current president, after intermittent shows of competence, is leaving him with an historic, multi-layered, mess.
The stock exchange lost nearly a third of its value last year, the worst showing since 1931.
That’s not a haircut. That’s Skinhead Nation.
When did Bush or his allies raise the alarums? That would be, never. In fact, they insisted until the bitter end that all was well.
The environment got worse, too, with the Bush/Cheney regime not only going out of its way to block progress on fuel efficiency and greenhouse gases, as the North Pole melted, but also making late moves to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act. Which environmental groups and former California Governor-turned-Attorney General Jerry Brown have just sued to prevent.
Then there is geopolitics. … From my Friday Huffington Post column.
** HOW OBAMA’S ADROIT SYMBOLISM YIELDS SKY-HIGH APPROVAL. Well, President-elect Barack Obama has more than weathered a few highly-publicized controversies. He has the highest approval rating for a president-elect in decades. He’s done it with a lot of good will from the campaign, and some adroit symbolism during the transition. … From my Monday column.
** OBAMA FLOATS THROUGH TEAPOT TEMPESTS. With the fastest Cabinet appointments in 40 years completed, Barack Obama is off to a working vacation in his native Hawaii. It increasingly looks like he’s rolled through two teapot tempests. One in which the far right flipped out, and another in which some on the left, frustrated at an avoidable defeat on same-sex marriage, forgot about the center part of center/left.
The far right flipping out about Obama is nothing new. Nor, I suppose, is a lot of the media going along for the ride. The media loves controversy, deep or otherwise. It’s easier than contemplating pressing issues. … From my December 22nd column.
** CALIFORNIA CRACKING. From my December 10th column.
** 12 KEY THINGS ABOUT THE MUMBAI CRISIS. From my December 5th column.
** OBAMA’S NEW POWER TROIKA FACES CRISES OLD AND NEW. From my December 3rd column.
** HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MR. PRESIDENT-ELECT! While Barack Obama promised “a new and brighter day yet to come” in his Thanksgiving address, an old and darker day yet to leave reminds that events — and perhaps political fate itself — can turn on a dime in presidential politics. …
For a political operation that prefers to focus on its preferences, it’s a sharp reminder to Team Obama that the presidency can be every bit as reactive as it is proactive. … From my November 28th Huffington Post column.
** 24/7 LIVE TV NEWS FEED FROM RUSSIA TODAY. Russia has re-emerged as one of the world’s great powers. Click here for a live TV news feed on your computer, bringing you English-language, jargon-free, fast-paced coverage of global and Russian news from the new Russia Today channel. You probably already know about CNN International, BBC World, and Al Jazeera. Russia Today, which also features culture, entertainment, and sports, is based in Moscow and is owned and operated by the TV Novosti division of Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti.
While it’s quite foolish to expect to see, say, criticism of Vladimir Putin on Russia Today, which I know as a former DemRussia advisor, the channel is very interesting nonetheless. With U.S. cable news chattering away as it does, this sort of respite can be informative. The NWN live link to RT does not constitute an endorsement of the channel’s views. It’s presented as an otherwise unavailable new media window.
** SCHWARZENEGGER’S CALIFORNIA. Here is my series of five columns on the governorship of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the Los Angeles Times in debate with Pulitzer Prize-winning former Times reporter/editor Bill Boyarsky, whose columns are also included.
Among them is what I’m sure is the first piece examining Schwarzenegger’s legacy as governor of California. Since he will actually be governor of California until 2011. No technology known to be disruptive to the space/time continuum was used in its preparation.
** TRACK GLOBAL AND NATIONAL ENERGY PRICES IN NEAR REAL TIME VIA BLOOMBERG ENERGY MARKET WATCH. After crashing over $147 for yet another record on July 11th, crude oil is trading in the $46 to $47 per barrel range.
The drop of $101 per barrel since the record high over the summer comes on acknowledgment that the weak US economy will cut future demand and on the easing of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. It is clear that that, contrary to much chatter, neither the US nor Israel is about to launch a strike against Iran. And the Russian war with Georgia, confounding much speculation and reporting to the contrary, actually decreased the geopolitical risk premium in the oil market.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
Read 
| Comments (73) |
I doubt that anyone on their payrolls is telling them not to go forward.
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 3:39 pm edit
Why do they want to waste their money?
Brasky Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Capitol Boy — two self-funded, low name-id Republicans matched-up in the primary?! Sounds like fun.
Feinstein’s a formidable figure, but she seldom departs from the consensus view in Washington, where she is very comfortable.
># Jack Aubrey Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 3:38 pm edit
Panetta sounds pretty good to me.
Wasn’t Feinstein all for the Iraq War? I guess she’s not such a big intelligence expert, is she?
It’s interesting how they would know that.
># Wilbur Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 2:44 pm edit
Apparently not *yet* thrown in the bucket. As I read it the judge set a Thursday deadline for the prosecutors to submit their proof on their application to revoke bail and lock him up.
I think her bigger problem is her high-profile endorsement of the programs of John McCain and Mitt Romney.
># Brasky Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 2:02 pm edit
“WHITMAN EDGES FURTHER TOWARD GOVERNOR’S RACE.”
Any fellow Democrat want to post some of Whitman’s comments about Obama on here?
Interesting, thanks.
># Dana Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 1:30 pm edit
Here is a good damning essay by Michael Kinsley on the blunders of Bush: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1869213,00.html
Interestingly in the Vaniety Fair oral history there is reference to how even far right christians now realize they were exploited by Bush but got little for helping re-elect the guy. By 2005 the Faith Based Office was all but gone. So much for being a man of character.
True, they didn’t accomplish that objective …
># Dana Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 1:25 pm edit
I did say out loud at that one USC forum I attended after the 2006 elections that Rove was so brilliant he was stupid (i.e. wasting Bush’s political capital on a DOA social security plan). I don’t think the results are surpising at all. Iraq as Isreal’s new best friend? Come on!
>Bill Bradley Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Well, they accomplished their objectives …
># Chris M Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 12:06 pm edit
I dunno. Methinks they were true believers on neoconservatism and de-regulation, got most of what they asked for…but the results were surprising. Maybe that’s “clueless” or maybe that’s brilliantly wrong.
He’s kind of like an amiable snapping turtle.
># Dana Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 1:21 pm edit
True enough. And set the tone which encouraged the echo chamber that enveloped them. Bush famously has sharp reactions whenever legislators meeting him said something that didn’t fit his worldview. Stubborn and wrong-headed is a bad combination.
>Bill Bradley Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Well, he picked the people around him.
Well, in theory a different department. As the CIA is not supposed to operate within the US, as you know …
># Brasky Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 1:02 pm edit
LEON PANETTA TO BE NEW C.I.A. DIRECTOR.
Good news. Another California connection. Maybe we can get a bigger slice of Homeland Security money now?
“It’s interesting how they would know that.”
1) Someone was contacted to hold the stuff and they freaked, calling the cops.
2) He’s under surveillance by multiple federal agencies, including phone taps, etc. Changes to the law were made during both the Drug War and Terror War to give investigators wide latitude in investigating money laundering cases. They could be intercepting his mail.
3) One or more private investigators have been hired by former investors and one of them followed someone to a Mail Boxes etc.
“As the CIA is not supposed to operate within the US, as you know …”
Well, yes and no. I believe they aren’t supposed to spy on Americans living in the United States or conduct domestic covert operations.
However, I’m sure they do make significant assessments of security risks on US soil. Especially since many of these risks are by foreign powers.
I’m cutting and pasting
this from the Liberal OC.
Why Norm Coleman Should Concede (with apologies to Peggy Noonan)
Posted on January 5th, 2009 by Dan Chmielewski
Back on December 4, 2000, at the height of the Bush-Gore Florida Recount, conservative columnist Peggy Noonan penned a piece for Time Magazine entitled, “Why Gore Should Concede.” With Al Franken’s certified victory in the US Senate race coming today, I have decided to edit Ms. Noonan’s piece to reflect the Senate race in Minnesota.
And yes, I took major editorial liberties and didn’t use whole paragraphs because some didn’t work; but the idea is there. When Gore filed a legal challenge to Bush’s Florida win, the Republicans and Conservatives descended upon the vice president with charges of “Sore Loserman.”
The shoe is now on the other foot. Here’s my edited Noonan column:
“Norm Coleman should hang it up. And then he should hang his head in shame. In a great irony of which he may someday become aware, Coleman proved at the end of his Senatorial campaign what he had spent most of the campaign trying to disprove. In words and deeds, in photo ops and tactical decisions, he kept trying to demonstrate that he was not George W. Bush’s tool. And now, at the end, by putting the state of Minnesota through a terrible trauma to serve his own needs and retain personal power, he shows that if he is not a complete Bush clone, he is at the very least a man who has absorbed and accepted the central ethos of Republicanism: “we’ll just have to win then.” No mater what.
“To briskly review: there was a senatorial election, and it was close. It came down to wrongly rejected absentee ballots. They counted the votes. On election night, Mr. Coleman won. But it was close, so they had an automatic recount. They counted the votes again from the top of Minnesota to the bottom. From the west to the east. The recount showed Al Franken to be the winner.
“Great harm has been done by Mr. Coleman’s decision to challenge this election in court. If he manages to finagle his way back to the Senate, his term is likely to prove a dark saying: When you want it bad, you get it bad.
Mr. Coleman is showing history who he is, and what he is showing is really, truly sad. There is one group that seems ot me to have distinguished itself with its protests, and that is the new Democratic Party that in its latest incarnation has refound its voice. And they’re not partisans. They’re patriots. They are acting out their protectiveness towards a great Republic. Too bad Coleman couldn’t.
Elroy El — I believe when calculated as a precentage of the total ballots cast, the margin in Minn 2008 is higher than the margin in Fla 2000…
Am I the only one still at work again?
That’s OK everyone, enjoy your dinner — I’ll go ahead and create enough prosperity for all of us.
Dianne will come around about 45 seconds after she collides with Sylvia. Maybe its appropriate to point out that the Senator will turn 76 this year.
Panetta’s appointment is a brilliant move by Obama. Back in the good old days, when I lived in The Promised Land, Panetta was my congressional representative. I even lost a great secretary to him. Well, really to Sylvia, who ran that side of things.
The CIA doesn’t need any of their “professionals” as head. Those are the people who have screwed up so badly the last ten years or so. The CIA needs a manager who knows the levers of government, knows how an organization works, who can get the CIA back on track. This is a sign the Tenet era is over. And the real CIA people who know what Panetta can do for the CIA should be celebrating.
And Lady Di has been dissed, by not having Obama come to her, hat in hand, seeking her blessings. Well, it’s a new era. About time.
If you check out his bio, Leon Panetta is qualified to be President of the United States. He is not because he comes from a relatively small rural county in the largest state. He can handle any position in government, including Director of the CIA.
What new video today?
Obama and Gaza.
He’s a very capable guy.
># Sullihan Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 12:30 am edit
If you check out his bio, Leon Panetta is qualified to be President of the United States. He is not because he comes from a relatively small rural county in the largest state. He can handle any position in government, including Director of the CIA.
It’s a good appointment.
># larry Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 10:08 pm edit
Panetta’s appointment is a brilliant move by Obama. Back in the good old days, when I lived in The Promised Land, Panetta was my congressional representative. I even lost a great secretary to him. Well, really to Sylvia, who ran that side of things.
The CIA doesn’t need any of their “professionals” as head. Those are the people who have screwed up so badly the last ten years or so. The CIA needs a manager who knows the levers of government, knows how an organization works, who can get the CIA back on track. This is a sign the Tenet era is over. And the real CIA people who know what Panetta can do for the CIA should be celebrating.
And Lady Di has been dissed, by not having Obama come to her, hat in hand, seeking her blessings. Well, it’s a new era. About time.
That’s pretty good.
># Brasky Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 4:54 pm edit
Elroy El — I believe when calculated as a precentage of the total ballots cast, the margin in Minn 2008 is higher than the margin in Fla 2000…
Pretty funny!
>Elroy El Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 4:39 pm edit
I’m cutting and pasting
this from the Liberal OC.
Why Norm Coleman Should Concede (with apologies to Peggy Noonan)
Posted on January 5th, 2009 by Dan Chmielewski
Back on December 4, 2000, at the height of the Bush-Gore Florida Recount, conservative columnist Peggy Noonan penned a piece for Time Magazine entitled, “Why Gore Should Concede.” With Al Franken’s certified victory in the US Senate race coming today, I have decided to edit Ms. Noonan’s piece to reflect the Senate race in Minnesota.
It’s been an historic struggle with the FBI, not unlike MI-6 and MI-5.
># Brasky Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 4:37 pm edit
“As the CIA is not supposed to operate within the US, as you know …”
Well, yes and no. I believe they aren’t supposed to spy on Americans living in the United States or conduct domestic covert operations.
However, I’m sure they do make significant assessments of security risks on US soil. Especially since many of these risks are by foreign powers.