Next Time, Call First

"Expressing concern [about Panetta's lack of intelligence experience] and opposing the nominee are two different things," said a Democratic official, who believes that most Democrats will eventually come around to supporting the nomination. Another Democratic official conceded that the criticism of Panetta has as much to do with pride and hurt feelings as it does real concerns about his abilities to do the job. This official says Feinstein and Rockefeller likely would have kept their reservations about Panetta to themselves had Obama done them the courtesy of consulting them first.

Obama is believed to have chosen an outsider to run the CIA in part because most other potential candidates with recent intelligence experience were in some way involved with controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, including the warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens or the use of aggressive and legally dubious interrogation techniques. Initially, Obama hoped to appoint John Brennan, his top transition adviserr on intelligence, to the job. But Brennan was a top aide to CIA director George Tenet and then headed an interagency counterterrorism center. After bloggers flogged him for publicly defending agency officials who worked on interrogation cases, Brennan withdrew his name from consideration.

Some Democrats on Capitol Hill—including Feinstein—were nonetheless urging Obama to name a veteran intelligence official to head the CIA. One name floated by some Capitol Hill Democrats: Steve Kappes, the agency's current deputy director. An experienced field operative, Kappes was purged from the agency when another Capitol Hill veteran, former House Intelligence Committee chairman Porter Goss, took over as director in 2004. But when Goss was driven out of the agency in 2006 after a rocky tenure, Kappes was brought back to Langley to help restore morale. Obama's team was apparently concerned, however, that Kappes's involvement in post-9/11 counterterrorism operations could have exposed him to the same kind of Bush-related controversies that dogged Brennan.

Goss's tenure as CIA director—generally regarded as unsuccessful if not disastrous—is cited by Panetta's critics as a cautionary example of why it could be unwise to appoint a political type to run the agency. The CIA is a clannish, esoteric bureaucracy in which dissembling, deception and deviousness are prized. Outsiders unfamiliar with the institution's culture can find themselves outmaneuvered by career officials.

Goss's tenure was particularly blighted by his decision to bring in a team of political operatives who had worked for him on Capitol Hill. Goss and his henchmen purged the agency's top management and installed bureaucrats they regarded as loyal or at least malleable. But Goss's power began to crumble shortly after the FBI raided the office of one of Goss's top aides, No. 3 ranked agency official Dusty Foggo, as part of a corruption probe. (Foggo recently pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud in the case and is slated to sentenced this month). Even critics of the Panetta nomination, who worry that his learning curve in the knives-out espionage world could be steep, say he is unlikely to repeat the kind of mistakes that sullied Goss's reign at Langley.

© 2009