One would assume that the first criteria for selecting the head of any United States intelligence agency would be their desire to uphold the Constitution and protect the United States from its enemies, both foreign and domestic ... regardless of political party and partisanship.

That the second criteria would be experience in intelligence matters.

And that the third criteria might be that the person not be a lawyer who might fail to distinguish between prosecuting our enemies covertly in a manner that may be permissible in wartime, but whose actions, should they be discovered, might not play well in a federal court designed for civilians.

I might add, a person of action and proven decision-making ability who will not fail this nation in a time of crisis -- with endless waffling as has been alleged regarding National Security Advisor Samuel "the burglar" Berger when he ostensibly had a chance to order the killing of  Osama bin Laden.

So why was Leon Panetta chosen?

The Denver Post is reporting ...

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. An Obama transition official and another Democrat disclosed his nomination on a condition of anonymity since it was not yet public.

"Panetta was director of the Office of Management and Budget and a longtime congressman from California."

"He served on the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that released a report at the end of 2006 with dozens of recommendations for the reversing course in the Iraq war."

"Panetta currently directs with his wife Sylvia the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay a university he helped establish on the site of the former U.S. Army base, Fort Ord."

There is no doubt he is a hyper-partisan liberal ...

While Panetta is a very bright, articulate and pleasant person, he appears to by a hyper-partisan defender of the Clintons and is associated with a far-left liberal San Francisco-area educational institutions, California State University -- second in radicalism to the University of California, Berkeley.

In actuality, Panetta is an intellectual elitist -- only more laid back than his Harvard, Princeton and North Eastern liberal buddies.

He appears to be an honorable man ...

Other than his status as a hyper-partisan Clintonista, Panetta seems to be an OK guy and might just prove to be good choice -- provided he can overcome his politics and lawyerly training to concentrate on the protection of the United States from our enemies -- some of which may turn out to be Washington political leaders and bureaucrats.

However, the way the political landscape is shaping up tends to make me believe that we are now entering Clinton's Third Term and a final opportunity to erase that famous stain from the Presidential escutcheon.

-- steve

Reference Links:

Obama picks Leon Panetta to head CIA - The Denver Post