I watched the confirmation hearing for incoming Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Dennis Blair, tonight. Diane Feinstein is now the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It appears that new members of the committee include Carl Levin of Michigan and Republican Jim Risch of Idaho. The ranking member is Kit Bond of Missouri, who has already announced that he is retiring from the Senate in January, 2011. At that point, it’s most likely that Orrin Hatch will take over as the ranking member of Intelligence.
My overall impression of Admiral Blair was favorable. He refused to call waterboarding ‘torture’, but he also promised that the procedure will not be done on his watch. I believe Blair dodged the question for the simple reason that he wants to maintain good relations with members of the intelligence community that may now be facing legal jeopardy for participating in acts that Bush’s Justice Department assured them were legal. I’d prefer everyone drop the bullshit and legalisms, but I understand.
On the whole, I thought Blair was thoughtful, cautious, and committed to the right things. I think he will work on the problems of excessive contracting, overclassification, and lack of oversight and accountability. He appears to understand the problems created for the intelligence community during the Bush years and he has a plan to improve things. I think Blair will be pretty good and he’s a hell of a lot better than crazy James Woolsey who Bill Clinton put in charge of the nation’s intelligence community in 1993.
I’m happy with Blair but much more enthusiastic about Leon Panetta for Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). Between the two of them I think we’ll be able to build an intelligence capability that we can be proud of and that will serve Obama well.
