By AMY HARDER
Four days after rumors began swirling about Barack Obama's surprise pick of Leon Panetta for CIA director, the buzz has now become official. At a press conference this morning Obama announced the nominations of Panetta, retired Adm. Dennis Blair for National Intelligence director and former CIA official John Brennan -- who withdrew from consideration for CIA director in November after opposition from liberal bloggers -- as White House homeland security adviser and deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism.
Some Bush administration officials will remain to work with the incoming intelligence team. Current DNI Mike McConnell will offer counsel on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, and Michael Leiter will continue as head of the United States National Counterterrorism Center.
Panetta has served as a congressman from California, Office of Management and Budget director, and White House chief of staff to President Clinton, but he has no direct intelligence experience. The unexpected pick has already triggered criticism both in Congress and the media, and will likely generate tough questioning at Panetta's confirmation hearing.
Obama wasted no time pre-emptively defending the pick. After listing Blair's credentials, the president-elect said Blair's experience "will be exceptionally complemented" by Panetta. "Let me be clear," Obama stressed. "In Leon Panetta, the agency will have a director who has my complete trust and substantial clout."
Panetta also received an unequivocal seal of approval from Blair in his remarks. "I couldn't have asked for a better leader for the CIA," Blair said, as he turned to Panetta. "With your background and perspective, the agency is in superb hands."
Panetta, who took to the podium after Blair, stressed the need for a strong intelligence team. "I commit to consulting closely with my former colleagues and the Congress to form the kind of partnership we need to win the war on terror," he said.
Show Me The Stimulus Plan!
Not surprisingly, the president-elect opened the presser with a grim message about December's employment report: 524,000 jobs lost last month. That brings the total number of jobs lost in 2008 to 2.6 million, amounting to "the single worst year of job loss since World War II," Obama said. The incoming president described the situation as "dire, deteriorating" and one that "demands urgent and dramatic action."
Most reporters' questions focused on Obama's forthcoming economic stimulus package. When probed about criticisms surrounding his plan -- specifically regarding its size and the difficulty of pushing it through Congress -- the president-elect said that his administration will always listen and take good economic ideas from any source. "What is not an option," Obama said, "is to sit and engage in posturing or standard partisan fights when the American people out there are struggling. Now, I don't expect Congress is going to do that; they understand the urgency of the situation."
John Brennan, reportedly Barack Obama's top choice for director of the CIA, withdrew his name from consideration in a letter to Obama on Tuesday after the liberal blogosphere erupted in protest. A top adviser to George Tenet when he held the agency's top post under President Bush, Brennan is associated with some of the Bush administration's most controversial policies, including harsh interrogation methods and warrantless wiretapping. The left seems to be responding to the news with jubilation. Here is a sampling of reactions from liberal bloggers.
by SHANE HARRIS
John Brennan, President-elect Obama's intelligence adviser and the person many thought would head the CIA, has formally withdrawn his name from consideration "for a position within the intelligence community." (Read the letter here [PDF].)
Why is this important? The netroots, liberal bloggers and others on Obama's left flank have been furious over the idea that Brennan might get a senior post because he has been associated with some of the Bush administration's harshest intelligence tactics, including waterboarding, overseas detention and domestic surveillance. As the intensity of criticism increased, team Obama seems to have decided it was best for Brennan to stand down. This is an important victory for the left base, which was still feeling the sting of Obama's decision earlier this year to vote for enhanced surveillance powers.
In an interview with National Journal earlier this year, Brennan revealed that he differed with Obama over the thorny issue of immunity for companies that assisted the government with warrantless surveillance of Americans. In the wake of that interview and other reporting on Brennan's policy positions, bloggers launched a Web-wide campaign to scuttle his nomination.
In the NJ interview, conducted eight months before the election, Brennan distanced himself from some of the Bush policies and struck a pragmatic pose on surveillance policies:
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the threshold [for gathering intelligence about terrorist suspects], quite frankly, was low, because we didn't know the nature of the threat we faced here in the U.S. Every effort was made by the government to try to get as much understanding and visibility into what else might be out there that's going to hurt us again. Now that a number of years have passed, we need to make sure the calibration is important. But maybe in a period of heightened threat you have to recalibrate that based on new information you have -- new intelligence that's going to give you a better sense of where to aim your magnet.
Brennan's departure could put a crimp in the transition team's plans to roll out its top security picks. But the bigger issue here is that, when pressed from his left on national security, Obama conceded. It's difficult to imagine that Brennan made this decision without consulting the president-elect first.
UPDATE: According to an Obama transition spokesperson, Brennan will remain on the team as an adviser during the transition period. A formal statement is expected shortly.
