Posted on 01/07/2009 6:37:03 AM PST by PurpleMan
Panetta's a patriot, an experienced Washington hand, and close to the president-elect. As with many of the other early appointments on the incoming national security team, conservatives should be asking themselves if they ought not to be thanking their stars that the new team appears very realistic about the world they are being called on to lead and the enemies they will be facing.
(Excerpt) Read more at hughhewitt.townhall.com ...
I know Leon Panetta, and he is one Democrat that can manage people and run a department successfully. My best wishes to him...
Panetta’s a patriot like I’m a russian czar. Barf, barf and tripple barf.
Of course, if what the writer really means is that Panetta is a patriot for Marxism then he’s right on.
Actually, I think the REAL liberals, and by those who are above simple hero worship, should disgusted with BO right now. This is the most liberal President Elect ever, and he brings in a team straight from the moderate DLC. Heck, they could have had Hillary for that..
Leon Panetta is to patriotic, selfless behavior what e.coli is to an all-you-can-eat buffet, give me a freakin’ break.
Who put what hallucinogen in Hugh Hewitt’s water? THAT is the question that should be getting asked.
If you can get the word patriot out of ‘lip-lickin lap dog’ of a former con man in charge, then yes this clown is a patriot. Else he stays a clown.
Good old Hugh, if he gets any more moderate he will be a Star poster on DU/KOS. HH for Supreme Court, like Condi Rice for prez.
Panetta used to be my Congress-crtitter. I used to beat him up at social functions in the late 70’s and early 80’s over a flat tax.
He authored a flat tax bill for several years but he eventually surrendered to the dark side.
I respect Hugh immensely but he is losing sight of the bigger picture in his quest to appear to be the ‘long carbine’ of reason. These bastards are all Marxists, or at least are sympathetic to it.
So, while zero head fakes everyone with his appointment of seeming moderates, remember: every last one of these swine want a socialist system for this country.
You are correct that he is in over his head but these people aren't as moderate as you think they are. You are judging them on what they did 10 years ago. Much has changed and these snakes have slithered much more to the left since Klintoon.
bttt
This might be the case, but I am hopeful and not quite as pessimistic as most here I guess.
Experience, experience, experience, or, in this case, the lack thereof. ‘Whatcha talkin bout Willis’?
If Hillary had been elected would any of these cabinet selections have been different? I don’t think so.
What got into Hewitt?
I suspect the man is for sale.
Be careful. Purpleman! Reasonable discussion is considered treasonable by some on this site.
Some Freepers have intense moral certitude in their opinions (whether informed on a particular issue or not). They attack anyone who fails their litmus tests. They hawk 3rd party candidates and obscure congressmen for POTUS because no one else meets their standards.
They honor Ronald Reagan (as I hope we all do) but have little understanding of his political wisdom. They are the ones who hope we have 50 years of Democratic Party rule so that all will finally see the wisdom of their ways. They rejoice in the “purity” of losing because it confirms their self-indulgent sense of personal and political morality. You might find their opposite numbers (cousins, maybe) on the DailyKos.
According to Gary Berntsen, right now the CIA needs a LEADER not a manager. He thinks it needs a strong leader willing to take risks, and Panetta is NOT that guy. He thinks Panetta is way to nice to handle the job at this particular time while we’re at war and trying to protect the country against terrorism & terrorist attacks.
I think he’s right.
What Possibly can they say when they make all this grand change and we get attacked on our soil again?
Bush will only get credit after thousands more die in the streets and schoolyards of America and that is a terrible sin.
I guess the Left and Obama need their own Personal 911 so they can rise to the challenge. Truly shameful how the events of the last 8 years played out and I guess the Republicans will just go along with the nomination of an inexperienced person to run the CIA after the country suffered near 3000 deaths on 911 a country that has been engaged in a multi-front war ever since.
I guess that is going to be looked at like a stroke of genius..... Its Political expediency so that Obama can stroke his base.
The Milquetoast liberals that say WE ARE WRONG ... The same ones that Preach AMERICA is the PROBLEM in the world.
Oh wait I see your point like so many other sheep.
We need ANOTHER !!!! attack on American Soil before people that think like you wake up... thats it right... One time just wasn’t enough to get us all riled up like it was supposed too hmmm...
because George W. Bush was Proactive and took the fight to our enemies after 911 happened then the Milquetoast Liberals can’t stomach it and decided to rally against him.
When our country needed them most they did everything in their power to destroy this President and what he was trying to accomplish and now they have the nerve to say oh...lets all heal...lets all hug and sing kumbah ya with obama. I am dumbfounded at the sheer gall they have.
So then if we do not fight Obama then I guess we will just pray that the Radical Islamic nut jobs don’t kill anyone you happen to love when the idiot Obama changes all these Bush Policies that have kept our familys safe since 911...
For me Impeachment starts day one.
How is that a good choice for CIA director? By the end of his first term Obama and his fellow travelers will have successfully dismantled our intelligence gathering capabilities. Next comes NSA and the FBI...
Besides that this is the guy who was the White House COS and he didn’t even know that Bill was getting Bj’s from Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office....
LOL so much for his intelligence gathering skills.... Believe me our enemies are cheering at this pick.
Leon, isn’t this the guy that ran the cover-up for the clintonistas? He had no clue about Monica, as the chief of staff he should have known and did know everything. Should we expect him to do any different with “0”? He will only be there to cover up for “0”.
I suspect that Panetta will also be covering for the Clintons. Sandy Berger destroyed some documents pertinent to the 9-11 investigation. I suspect that Panetta will be on a similar search and destroy mission.
Add to that a shadow government that operates within the CIA (Valerie Plame et al) who will use their positions to thwart the elected administration if they disagree with the party that happens to win.
I see nothing positive or credible in this nomination.
Reminds me of Louis Freeh and Jamie Gorelick winding up inside of Fannie Mae after botching national security with regards to 9-11.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that.
He was aware of what was going on. He was smart enough to leave the White House before that scandal made the news.
Ah, Vancouver. Just a short trip to “The Cadillac Cafe.”
Then again, consider who appointed him: a man who has never held a leadership or management position in his life.
Now you carry his water...?? If he knew (was aware) then he is a crook who lied to the GJ that was investigating it... because he told them he knew nothing....
I suspect as CIA director he will be very good at that Sergeant Schultz impression.... “ I know Nothing, Nothing”...
Just what we need..... (rolls eyes).....
There is no defense so shut up.
Keeping Gates as SecDef was a bad decision?
That wasn’t so successful with Goss. I think that is part of Hewitt’s point.
Yeah, he was another mild lefty who ‘grew’ in office.
To be honest, I really don’t think it matters much who BHO selects to be the next CIA Director. The CIA was taken over long about by DemocRAT and liberal/left activists.
The book I am currently reading, “Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender”, by Kennneth R. Timmerman published in 2007, makes this fact abundandtly clear.
It’s called insulating oneself from the so-called Fairness Doctrine. The Marxist Onada’s administration will do what all totalitarian regimes do—intimidate.
I’m not carrying anyone’s water. Those of us who worked in Washington then (including me) certainly knew about Monica Lewinski before Matt Drudge ever broke the story. All I have said is that I wish Leon Panetta well. If he doesn’t do well, we are all toast.
Perhaps Republicans should have given this more thought when they nominated a loser.
“The CIA was taken over long about by DemocRAT and liberal/left activists.”
That’s odd. My friends who work there would deny it.
Then again maybe I and my freinds are really just a bunch of DemocRAT and liberal/left activist losers who want to take this country down the road to socialism...nay...Communism...nay...Shariah law Islamo-fascism!!!
Yea, that’s it.
Suggest you read the book I mentioned, it is quite eye opening about the ways of Washington and the way the game is played. One of Timmerman’s main points is that partisan interests all too often trump national security interests in the capital. Let Valery Plame be exhibit A. Another main point of the author is that people ARE policy in Washington. And, too often, the wrong people are in the wrong jobs.
I don’t deny for a minute that there are a lot well meaning, patriotic Americans serving the CIA in the field. It is the people running the place along with jokers running the State Department that worry me.
“I don’t deny for a minute that there are a lot well meaning, patriotic Americans serving the CIA in the field.”
And obviously none in leadership or in the Intel/Anaylsis or Sci/Tech Directorates? Just in Clandestine Service?
Been reading too many Vince Flynn novels? Why not try Gates’ “From the Shadows” Could balance the perspective.
The book I am currently reading is NOT a novel. Are you familiar with it? It is the real deal. I rarely read fiction. There is a lot of info on folks like Valery Plame and Joe Wilson and other liberal activists who have permanent jobs in our government.
If Obama is against torture, he wasn’t going to allow the CIA to do it in any case, and if Panneta is really against torture and is picked for the CIA it’s because that’s what Obama wants.
I’m more worried about whether Panetta has the ability to do the job than I am about his personal views. I presume everybody will be made to toe the Obama line, and we will suffer because of it.
I can only hope that we’ve tortured enough people already that we have the information we need, or that enough people distrust the USA that they will assume Obama and Panetta are lying and will be afraid of being tortured.
No, no, no!
Since Vince Flynn depicts the OPS guys as pure true-blue patriots and the rest as hacks, I was maiking a funny. Obviously, a bad delivery.
Sure PLane and Wilson are who they are, but the CIA employs between 10k-20k people. How many are Plane/Wilson’s? Hundreds? Thousands? more than half? Less than?
I don’t really know. I just started wading into the book. I will try to get back to you with more info. The book focuses on the Washington political culture and how they manipulate intelligence to suit their own (usually partisan) purposes.
Who has the CIA actually “tortured” and by what methods?
“the Washington political culture and how they manipulate intelligence to suit their own”
Or a Stewart entitled it: “Blood Sport”
http://www.amazon.com/BLOOD-SPORT-President-His-Adversaries/dp/0684831392
I worry that we need an experienced hand in the CIA, but Obama was elected he gets to pick who he wants.
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