Leon Panetta is What's Wrong with DC

[flpoljunkie]

Leon Panetta Is What’s Wrong With DC
Obama’s former defense secretary is out with a scathing new memoir about his time in the White House. But why should we buy anything he says?

Michael Cohen
10.08.14

When Harry Truman apocryphally said, “if you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog” he might have had someone like Leon Panetta in mind. Not content with letting Republicans pummel his old boss, President Obama’s former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense released a new memoir this week that attacks Obama for “losing his way” on foreign policy, for sending “mixed messages” to allies and enemies alike and for failing to use military force more promiscuously in protecting US interests in the Middle East.

There is more here, however, than just DC-style situational loyalty. In Panetta’s obsessive focus on the politics of national security, his fetishization of military force and his utter lack of strategic vision, what is also evident is the one-dimensional foreign policy thinking that so dominates Washington—and which Panetta has long embodied.

None of this should come as a surprise. When Panetta became CIA director in 2009, he was demonstrably unqualified for the job. He had no background in foreign policy, intelligence or national security. His most apparent and highly-touted skill was that he understood his way around bureaucratic Washington.

At both Langley and the Pentagon he became a forceful advocate for—or, some might say, bureaucratic captive of—the agencies he ran. As CIA Director he pushed back on efforts to expose the agency’s illegal activities during the Bush Administration —in particular, the use of torture (which he had once decried).

more...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/08/leon-panetta-is-what-s-wrong-with-dc.html

[DontTreadOnMe]

1. Be a politican, then you "cash in" when you retire

go on tv, write a book, give speeches... just another whore from DC.

[Centrist1984]

2. Hillary

Some say this is all about helping Hillary Clinton. By trashing Obama and being a Clinton loyalist (remember he worked for Bill), he may be trying to make it so that Hillary can distance herself further for 2016. I do not know for sure though.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Sleazy Clintonista.

[merrily]

4. In 2009, did Mr. Cohen point that Panetta was "demonstrably unqualified" for the position for which

Obama had nominated him? If not, why not? Didn't Cohen owe that to the country, if not to the President?

When Panetta became CIA director in 2009, he was demonstrably unqualified for the job. He had no background in foreign policy, intelligence or national security. His most apparent and highly-touted skill was that he understood his way around bureaucratic Washington.

Panetta has declared that Hillary will make a good President, so there's that.

Not to nitpick, but "apocryphal" usually means that a quote is attributed to someone without any evidence that the attribution is correct. So, either Truman said something or he didn't. "When Truman apocryphally said...." is tortured.

Does anyone know if the Michael Cohen who wrote this article is the same Michael Cohen who now works for the Century Foundation?

http://tcf.org/experts/detail/michael-cohen

[blkmusclmachine]

5. The 1% is what's WRONG with Washington DC.

"The banks own the place."

[bvf]

6. Panetta is on The Daily Show

tonight. Looking forward to it.

[AtomicKitten]

7. fuck that guy

He was the one that pressured Obama into letting the war crimes of the Bush/Cheney Admin slide. Panetta is a talentless hack. If he thinks backstabbing Obama on behalf of the Clintons is somehow going to help Hillary, he/they are in for a rude awakening.

k&r