President-elect Barack Obama appeared yesterday in his new home of Washington, calling for rapid action on a deteriorating economy in a post-partisan spirit. But his message was muddied by Dianne Feinstein’s objection to Leon Panetta as CIA director.
** DIFI LAYS DOWN SOME SMOKE AFTER HER UNSUCCESSFUL ENGAGEMENT ON THE PANETTA PICK AS C.I.A DIRECTOR. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, executed a time-honored naval maneuver this afternoon after her muddying of the waters yesterday for President-elect Barack Obama.
After finally accepting Obama’s pick of fellow Californian Leon Panetta – the former White House chief of staff, federal budget director, senior congressman, and Iraq Study Group member – as the next CIA director, she allowed as how Roland Burris should be seated as the next senator from Illinois. Well, yes, as I mentioned a week or more ago. But nice of her to change the subject after her embarrassing performance on the CIA directorship.
** FEINSTEIN SAYS OBAMA APOLOGIZED TO HER ABOUT FUTURE C.I.A. DIRECTOR PANETTA. New Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, backtracking again after her blast of yesterday, told the press in Washington that President-elect Barack Obama apologized for not telling her in advance that fellow Californian Leon Panetta will be the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
I mentioned that she would get over it.
** THE BUSH DYNASTY TAKES A BREATHER. Although dad George Herbert Walker Bush talked him up as a future president during New Year’s week, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has decided against running for the seat of retiring Florida Senator Mel Martinez, calling it “just not the right timing.”
Good call, considering that Barack Obama took Florida out of the Republican presidential column two months ago.
** FEINSTEIN GOES ALONG WITH PANETTA AT C.I.A., BUT WANTS TO NAME DEPUTY DIRECTOR. As I expected here and in my new Huffington Post column, Senator Dianne Feinstein, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is going along with the appointment of Leon Panetta as director of the CIA. But she wants her first choice for the post – current CIA Deputy Director Steve Kappes – to stay on as deputy director of the agency.
As I point out in the column, it won’t be hard to link Kappes to excesses of the recent past.
** POIZNER ANNOUNCES GUBERNATORIAL CAMPAIGN STEERING COMMITTEE. A day after former eBay CEO Meg Whitman quit her corporate board memberships in anticipation of a race for the Republican nomination for governor of California, the apparent frontrunner, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, announced his campaign steering committee. Here’s the roster: William Bloomfield, Katherine Boyd, Elliott Broidy, Hon. Jim Brulte, Brad Freeman, Susan Groff, Brian Harvey, Jeff Henley, Buck Johns, Linda Law, Paula Kent Meehan, Steve Merksamer, Burt McMurtry, Deedee McMurtry, Frank G. Myers, Susan Myers, Charles Munger Jr., Mick Pattinson, Ron Plotkin, Lenny Sands, Mary Belle Snow, Hon. Michelle Park Steel, Marc Stern, Hon. Van Tran, Frank Visco, Hon. Mimi Walters and Buzz Woolley.
** CIA: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK. Let’s parse Barack Obama’s pick of Leon Panetta to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency. It’s stirring up some controversy, even among Democrats. Which is probably a good sign about this very capable, amiable, non-arrogant fixture of decades on the California political scene. And while we’re at it, let’s give some depth to his background beyond the usual shorthand “former Clinton chief of staff,” which doesn’t really explain him at all, as he comes out of the almost forgotten liberal Republican tradition.
Panetta’s fellow Californian Dianne Feinstein, the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is miffed that word of the appointment got out before she was notified, saying that she’s always thought the post should go to an intelligence professional. It also turns out that she may have had her own candidate, a career CIA insider, a sign that Feinstein’s grasp of the political atmospherics today is, let’s say, not strong. …
In any event, the contention of Feinstein — a highly-briefed senator who was absolutely convinced of the existence of Iraqi WMD, incidentally, speaking of getting it dead wrong — that an intelligence professional is always better than a non-professional ignores some of America’s most important history. In the 1950s, CIA Director Allen Dulles was widely acknowledged as one of the world’s pre-eminent spymasters. But it’s hard to say how good he was, because most of what he did was shrouded in secrecy.
One thing that was not shrouded in secrecy was the Bay of Pigs, that famously dunderheaded plan to invade Cuba in 1961 which Dulles and some warhawk generals conned the young JFK into approving. After that, Kennedy vowed to “smash the CIA into a thousand pieces.” After calming down, he made his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the overseer of the intelligence community and brought in another Californian with no intelligence background, businessman John McCone, to run the CIA. McCone proved to be a highly effective CIA director, especially during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There’s no reason to think that Leon Panetta can’t be a very good CIA director following another period of notable CIA failures and scandals. … From my new column.
** NEW COLUMN COMING UP … C.I.A.: PARSING THE PANETTA PICK.
** OBAMA TODAY. President-elect Barack Obama meets with his economic team to go over the federal budget situation. It’s in massive deficit, of course, after eight years of the Bush/Cheney Administration, and is going to get into even bigger deficit with the need to stimulate the bad economy.
Obama has some personnel matters to attend to, including finding a replacement for New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson at commerce secretary. There’s some word that it might be LA Congressman Xavier Becerra, who turned down the post of US trade representative. More about that later.
Obama also has some ruffled feathers to smooth around his reported coming appointment of former White House chief of staff, federal budget director, and California Congressman Leon Panetta as director of the CIA. The appointment leaked before anyone talked with incoming Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, who is clearly miffed and says she wants an intelligence professional in the job. The record of “professionals” and “amateurs” as CIA director is not what she suggests, as I’ll be getting into in an upcoming column.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues, with the UN saying a quarter of the more than 500 killed so far were civilians.
Obama, receiving daily intelligence/national security briefings, is also monitoring the Israel-Hamas clash in the Gaza Strip. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who many on the far right imagined was a fellow traveler, is in the region to try to broker a ceasefire.
** FROM THE ARNOLD FILE. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has private meetings and discussions today in and around the Capitol. He has no scheduled public appearances. Schwarzenegger is working on getting a budget deal prior to next week’s state of the state address.
Not surprisingly, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is suing to prevent the complex Democratic plan to raise taxes as fees.
** 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 $50 to $51 per barrel range. Crude oil is up about $15 per barrel since Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas began just after Christmas.
The drop of $97 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 previous 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.
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| Comments (72) |
Who the hell is Hall?
># Brasky Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:50 pm edit
Oh, it was Hall who filed the papers. Got it thanks.
Still think Whitman would be hard pressed to make it as dog catcher…
Thanks! I was moderately curious about that …
># Salto Sapo Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm edit
From the Capitol Morning Report today:
It appears the tussle between Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay and possible candidate for governor, and Thomas Hall of Santa Monica has taken a new turn: On Dec. 22, Hall filed eight campaign committee statements in Whitman’s name with the Secretary of State, including “Meg Whitman for Dog Catcher.”
A year ago, Hall (who did not return our phone call yesterday) bought several internet domain names Whitman might have used for a possible run for statewide office, such as whitmanforgovernor.com. Whitman complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization, but lost Dec. 1. Then on New Year’s Eve, Whitman sued Hall in federal district court for cybersquatting.
We spoke with Whitman’s consultants at Randle Communications and they said Whitman has not filed campaign statements. We also spoke with Roman Porter, executive director of the Fair Political Practices Commission and he said they take seriously the requirements for accurate disclosure; Porter said the penalty for falsifying reports can be as high as perjury.
Who is Hall? Tough to say, but the phone number he listed with the FPPC is the same as that of the Maverick Group, which would suggest that this is Hall’s Plaxo page.
Her attitude is clearly irritating, especially given her oversight screw-ups.
># Chris M Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm edit
Feinstein made mistakes with both her response to the Panetta balloon AND her use of the word “apology” in her description of the follow-up conversation with Obama. She should have had the smarts and class to quietly accept the call from Obama and fall in line. Prediction: She won’t get her preferred deputy CIA director either.
There are any number of jobs that baffle me …
># Brasky Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:46 pm edit
“Well, I’m not sure I know those answers, either …”
Obviously, you’d make a lousy dog catcher.
True or false – most rabid animals are not aggressive.
False – it’s more common for rabid animals to become docile, rather than aggressive.
How can porcupines help indicate that an animal is rabid?
Animals that normally leave porcupines alone may attack the creatures if they are infected with rabies and the disease makes them abnormally aggressive. The quills can easily be seen on the head, face and neck of an infected creature.
What is the incubation period of rabies in dogs?
One to three months after infection. Once symptoms appear in the animal, it is almost impossible to cure.
Oh, that’s not nice.
># Brasky Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:46 pm edit
“Well, I’m not sure I know those answers, either …”
Obviously, you’d make a lousy dog catcher.
True or false – most rabid animals are not aggressive.
False – it’s more common for rabid animals to become docile, rather than aggressive.
How can porcupines help indicate that an animal is rabid?
Animals that normally leave porcupines alone may attack the creatures if they are infected with rabies and the disease makes them abnormally aggressive. The quills can easily be seen on the head, face and neck of an infected creature.
What is the incubation period of rabies in dogs?
One to three months after infection. Once symptoms appear in the animal, it is almost impossible to cure.
“Oh, that’s not nice.”
I’d hire you in another capacity — skilled Democrats are better at hearding cats than catching dogs…
RATING THE GAZA WESTERN MEDIA COVERAGE
The double standard of the so called free and unbiased media of West and its major television channels have adopted the “equal time” approach, despite the reality that Islamic Palestinian residence of Gaza territory, casualties exceed Israeli causalities by a hundred fold.
Al Jazeera and other non-profit news are rated Excellent, having shown many interviews with (UN) United Nations ambassadors that criticize the (USI/MIC) foreign policy.
In the (USI/MIC) United States of Israel Military Industrial Complex, (CNN Cable News Network International) is rated very good by its viewers for a (USI/MIC) media affiliate, but is almost impossible to find in the (USI/MIC), The standard Domestic (CNN) anchors practically speak like Israeli army spokesperson, scripted parrots of the propaganda line, and only reporting on the Israeli viewpoint, showing only the (USI/MIC) ambassador to the (UN) comments. . The Nation magazine is rated pretty good but the writers are unrealistic dreamers
In the (U.K) United Kingdom the (BBC) British Broadcasting Corporation is rated Good, with fairly equal and balanced coverage, rating along side (CNN International), but both fell flat and were unacceptably one-sided in their coverage of the (UN), only covering the (USI/MIC) ambassador to the (UN) comments. Very one-sided.
The Israeli paper Haaretz, is rated Good for reporting the facts unvarnished along with a variety of opinions.
lol
Rachel Maddow is just reporting what I learned here a week ago.
Yay.
SUPER lol
** DIFI LAYS DOWN SOME SMOKE AFTER HER UNSUCCESSFUL ENGAGEMENT ON THE PANETTA PICK AS C.I.A DIRECTOR. Senator Dianne Feinstein, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, executed a time-honored naval maneuver this afternoon after her muddying of the waters yesterday for President-elect Barack Obama.
After finally accepting Obama’s pick of fellow Californian Leon Panetta – the former White House chief of staff, federal budget director, senior congressman, and Iraq Study Group member – as the next CIA director, she allowed as how Roland Burris should be seated as the next senator from Illinois. Well, yes, as I mentioned a week or more ago. But nice of her to change the subject after her embarrassing performance on the CIA directorship.
Jeb Bush may be the smart one, after all, He certainly doesn’t need to be a senator to run for prez in ‘12 or ‘16.
Who says the death toll in Gaza needs to be proportional?
Proportional to what?
She is pretty damn arrogant.
Chris M Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
Feinstein made mistakes with both her response to the Panetta balloon AND her use of the word “apology” in her description of the follow-up conversation with Obama. She should have had the smarts and class to quietly accept the call from Obama and fall in line. Prediction: She won’t get her preferred deputy CIA director either.
America does not need its own KGB.
Abolition of such evil is why America is better regarded in world than Soviet Union.
What new video today?
Obama, and Gaza.
True.
># sergei Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 2:26 am edit
America does not need its own KGB.
Abolition of such evil is why America is better regarded in world than Soviet Union.
What are you responding to?
># Ollie Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 10:38 pm edit
Who says the death toll in Gaza needs to be proportional?
Well, I think he does need a platform of some sort to establish a new record on the issues.
># Chris M Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 7:57 pm edit
Jeb Bush may be the smart one, after all, He certainly doesn’t need to be a senator to run for prez in ‘12 or ‘16.
Right! But the Senate– where he’ll have to make compromises and cast real votes– is not the best of those platforms available to him. Better for him to join a think tank, attend global conferences, go on TV every once in a while and stump/fundraise for Reep candidates nationwide.
For all the talk of Bush fatigue, if you had to name the single Republican most likely to ever become president, wouldn’t the list start with Jeb Bush, senate or no senate? No one else comes to mind as being all that close to him in terms of such a likelihood.
Bill Bradley Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Well, I think he does need a platform of some sort to establish a new record on the issues.
># Chris M Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 7:57 pm edit
Jeb Bush may be the smart one, after all, He certainly doesn’t need to be a senator to run for prez in ‘12 or ‘16.
Incidentally, NWN passed 77,000 comments sometime in the past week.