ALMOST A GREAT PICK:

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-obama-cia-panetta-2009jan06,0,6030511.story?track=rssObama picks Panetta for CIA director (Associated Press, January 5, 2009)

Two Democratic officials say President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to run the CIA.

Panetta was a surprise pick for the post, with no experience in the intelligence world.

Mr. Panetta, besides his fundamental decency, brings as much executive experience to his post as anyone in the Administration, considerably more than the President, Vice President and Chief of Staff. Indeed, one wishes he were running the whole show. Nor is his being an outsider to the profession at all a negative. But it would have been nice to get someone in there who is as skeptical of the Agency as it deserves and was an advocate for open intelligence reforms and market mechanisms for analysis.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 5, 2009 5:23 PM