Panetta was a former chief-of-staff to Clinton, and a distinguished congressman. I imagine this gave him a grounding in intelligence and, certainly, administration. The latter is crucial considering the disarray endemic at the CIA
Leon Panetta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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18th White House Chief of Staff
In office
July 17, 1994 " January 20, 1997
President Bill Clinton
Preceded by Mack McLarty
Succeeded by Erskine Bowles
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 17th district
In office
January 3, 1993 " January 22, 1993
Preceded by Cal Dooley
Succeeded by Sam Farr
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Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from California's 16th district
In office
January 3, 1977 " January 3, 1993
Preceded by Burt L. Talcott
Succeeded by Don Edwards
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Born June 28, 1938 (1938-06-28) (age 70)
Monterey, California
Political party Democratic
Profession Lawyer, Professor
Leon Edward Panetta (born June 28, 1938) is a Democratic politician and scholar from California's Central Coast. He served as White House Chief of Staff to Bill Clinton, and before that was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993. He is the founder and director of the Panetta Institute, serves as Distinguished Scholar to the Chancellor of the California State University system and is a professor at Jesuit-run Santa Clara University teaching public policy. On January 5, 2009, it was reported that President-elect Barack Obama will name him Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.[1]
@Advocate,
Advocate wrote:
I imagine this gave him a grounding in intelligence and, certainly, administration.
Lots of people don't have quite that imagination that you seem to have.
@FreeDuck,
thank you for getting that I'm just farting around
Yuck! Sanjay Gupta as attorney general? What's that about?
@Thomas,
He's an interesting choice. The job of Surgeon General is to promote certain memes as much as anything else... and he's well-recognized and liked.
Cycloptichorn
@Cycloptichorn,
Interesting. Well, I guess we can agree on that. Indeed, when I think about your enthusiasm for everything else Obama does, "interesting" sounds devastating, relatively speaking.
@Thomas,
Surgeon General, Thomas. Not AG.
Interesting character is Gupta. He wrote op-ed pieces about the practice of medicine while a student at the U of Michigan. He is a neurosurgeon, a one-time advisor to an earlier President, and only later a "journalist."
I am not sure what the job of the Surgeon General is. Perhaps to nag us about healthy living. Perhaps more. It seems to me to be a good choice.
@realjohnboy,
I'm unsure myself, rjbsan...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsZwhp6zlbo
@Thomas,
Thomas wrote:
Yuck! Sanjay Gupta as attorney general? What's that about?
He might have been better than what we got.
@realjohnboy,
Sorry. I did mean surgeon general. I have always instinctively disliked him, but he he lost my respect for good with his TV-diagnosis of Mukasey's collapse a few months ago.
@Rockhead,
Thanks, Rockhead, for that link. I watched it twice. My 1st inclination was that Dr Koop had no right to "impose" his fundamentalist Christian beliefs on the rest of "us." Upon further review, though, I am inclined to believe that, for their own sanity, there is nothing wrong with doctors internally embracing some kind of "faith."
Koop, you will recall, was a darling of the Reagan conservatives until he started talking about AIDS/HIV.
@realjohnboy,
I am unusually neutral and respectful of the man myself.
I hold the hope that our real leaders can withhold their personal agendas for our better good.
(said as a cynic...)
@Thomas,
Thomas, I reckon I have a blind spot. I do not own a television. I have read about Dr Gupta but know absolutely zilch about his latest career as a tv guy.
@Thomas,
Thomas wrote:
Yuck! Sanjay Gupta as attorney general? What's that about?
I so agree with you. Sanjay is a walking talking pharmaceutical commercial.
@Thomas,
I'm in the same boat as RJB - I don't watch much CNN and have never really seen him on TV. To me, he's just some sort of personality-doctor guy.
Cycloptichorn
@FreeDuck,
FreeDuck wrote:
Thomas wrote:
Yuck! Sanjay Gupta as attorney general? What's that about?
I so agree with you. Sanjay is a walking talking pharmaceutical commercial.
As the appointments roll in, and investigations continue,
Change We Can Believe In!
No matter if Obama stumbles and fucks up ...he'll have to go a long way not to be an improvement over that guy on the way out.
Can our Republic survive 4 years of the democrat cult of corruption under Barack Hussein Obama?
