Ever wonder whether things might have been different if Carter had not dissed Poppy? Maybe no October Surprise?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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And now Obama has supposedly picked Leon Panetta to be the new head of the CIA. That seems kind of like Carter’s attempt to put Sorenson in the same job – political hack getting put into a job because the PotUS can’t find anyone in the building untainted by the scandal.
Probably a bad move on Obama’s part – and likely another tally for my “Carter, Clinton, or Something Else” game in the “Carter” column. I wonder if Panetta will even survive the confirmation process.
Interesting. I actually like the pick.
Not sure I agree. I think the fact that someone like Panetta, who is so far removed from the taint of torture, rendition, and the whole host of illegal activities that have poisoned the agency, bodes well. He is a very experienced guy who is totally removed from the “good-ol’-boys” network of agency insiders who would likely be preferred by holdovers from the Bush era.
Yeah, he’s a “retread”. But I think he could be considered “change” from the standpoint of where we have been over the last eight years.
Let’s just see where it goes. I don’t think we can just dismiss him out of hand.
Well, I did say “likely” and not a guarantee.
But there’s a good chance that the CIA will find a way to make him ineffectual. The CIA is really, really good at finding ways to stymie efforts to change itself. Outsiders do well if they’re there to preserve the status quo. Outsiders who come in to change the culture find themselves blocked at every turn.
Maybe it’ll be different this time. Maybe Panetta will be “that good” that he can convince them that reasonable limits on their behavior and reasonable oversight for human rights violations are good for the organization as a whole.
I’m just not going to hold my breath.
Funny the article linked ends with JFK firing Dulles after the Bay of Pigs.
As we all know, Alan Dulles sat on the Warren Commission and found no conspiracy in the death of JFK. Along with him was Rep. Gerald Ford, who was appointed VP with Agnew’s resignation and then became President with Nixon’s resignation. Boy, was he lucky, eh? And no blood was spilled.
George Herbert Walker Bush was appointed head of the CIA by Ford and helped to block release of files to Congressional committees investigating intelligence wrongdoing as well as that spate of assassinations in the 60s.
Then Carter came in and was sunk by that October Surprise.
GHW Bush was Veep for Reagan, and then served a term as President himself. And then his son served for two terms. During the 1988 campaign The Nation turned up a document that showed that J. Edgar Hoover was getting information from a Mr. George Bush from the CIA. GHW Bush said it was another Bush. His bio had GHW Bush as not working for the CIA until he was named Director in 1976. And yet another outsider, Stansfield Turner, was despised by the careerists in the Agency. Go figure.
In 1992 Bush’s CIA chief, Bob Gates, blocked release of certain documents that showed that someone had been impersonating Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City a couple months before the assassination. Now Robert Gates is going to be continuing at the DOD.
So Gerald Ford, with GHW Bush at his DCI, blocked documents about the JFK assassination, and GHW Bush, with Bob Gates as his DCI, blocked documents on the JFK assassination. Funny, eh?
And so Dianne Feinstein says, “My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.” And she got to be mayor of San Francisco when Milk and Moscone were gunned down by a lone nut. Ain’t that peculiar!
It’s funny how GHW Bush, who wasn’t an intelligence professional at the time of his appointment, we are told, is so beloved in Langley.
Excuse me, I’m going somewhere to laugh.