Posted on 06/06/2010 11:21:18 AM PDT by jazusamo
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Sunday strongly backed the nomination of James Clapper as the new Director of National Intelligence.
Seeking to ease congressional concern over the nomination, Gates called Clapper "the consummate intelligence professional who has the respect of virtually everybody in the community."
"The President could not have found a better person, a more experienced person, or with a better temperament to do this job and actually make it work, than Jim Clapper," Gates told reporters en route from Singapore to Baku, Azerbaijan.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who heads the Senate Intelligence panel, expressed concern about naming a military officer to the job. Clapper has been the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.
It will be important that any nominee is not beholden to the Pentagons interests and can, as needed, provide balance to civilian and military interests in carrying out the nations intelligence missions, Feinstein said in a statement last week.
Meanwhile, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence panel called Clapper the "wrong person" for the job and said that Clapper is not forthcoming with information to the committees with jurisdiction over intelligence matters.
Gates on Sunday stressed that Clapper would be a good conduit between the civilian agencies and the military and that he has a "strong, long record" of adhering to congressional oversight and cooperating with congressional committees. The misunderstandings, Gates said, come in part from jurisdictional issues between the armed services and intelligence panels in Congress.
"I have never heard a single complaint from the armed services committees about Jims forthcomingness," Gates said. "I think some of what you see is the jurisdictional conflict between the intelligence committees and the armed services committees in terms of who gets briefed on what."
50 pics of the Clapper in 3, 2....
Also, FWIW, the guy looks like some kind of demon on Drudge's web page. Maybe he can't help his looks, but what an expression. And the facial hair is voluntary, too.
He has that Biden and Reid mouth.
Is that look starting to run in the leftist ‘family’?
Agreed, his personal grooming choice doesn’t reflect him being a retired AF Lt. Gen.
Golly, I wonder if this guy is a spineless political hack or an openly anti-American leftist. I’m afraid those are the only people Obama would consider.
He is undoubtedly a schmuck
Some people say that you can’t choose your looks when you are younger, but to an extent you do choose your looks when you reach 50 or so.
Smile wrinkles, frown wrinkles, fleeting expressions become more permanent. It’s amazing how much you can tell about someone just from looking at his face.
And, yes, I think that Harry Reid is a nasty guy who has succeeded in making his face over, to reflect his personality and his inward corruption, to the point where he can no longer hide it.
Lights on, lights out.
Highly illogical...
Much better he be beholden to the Chicago Mob's interests??
Clap on, Clap off! I knew he loved it! RIP, Billy Mays.
Why do we have complete incompetents running the Nation? Because the chief incompetent hired them.
LLS
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