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Obama Team Debating Whether Kappes Will Join Panetta and Blair for PEBO Intel Announcement
January 08, 2009 11:53 AM
ABC NEWS' GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS AND JAKE TAPPER REPORT:
ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama is debating whether the current deputy director of the CIA, 27-year agency veteran Stephen Kappes, will be present when Obama unveils his Intelligence Team Friday. The President-elect will likely keep Kappes in his current No. 2 role.
This step would largely be done as a way of placating critics who have expressed concern about his pick for CIA director, former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta, and said he lacks direct intelligence experience.
Some, such as both Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the incoming chair of the Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, the outgoing chair, have made it clear that they would have liked to have seen an intelligence professional get the director's job, with Kappes's name often mentioned.
Including Kappes in the announcement could symbolize that the agency will be run by both an outsider who has the confidence of the president, and a longtime insider -- the best of both worlds.
Mr. Obama's nominee to be Director of National Intelligence, Retired Admiral Dennis Blair, will also be formally announced.
-- Jake Tapper and George Stephanopoulos
UPDATE: This post has been updated.
January 8, 2009 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (23)
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My god - don't any of the Obama zealots hold him to accountability?
He is searching to create a government and it is hurting
Not the genious you hoped for
Posted by: volunteer | Feb 13, 2009 9:26:23 PM
Thank you President Bush and the Republican Congress for running record deficits for 6 years straight! Nice going Republicans!
You've left the country in fine shape. Bin Laden not caught, 2 wars costing
billions a week, a STRONG economy .. .
What more could you ask for from a government?
Posted by: pefros | Jan 9, 2009 1:21:34 AM
I'm glad they're keeping Kappes in there, they need at least on official who knows the way to the restrooms - in the building.
Posted by: Todd | Jan 8, 2009 2:30:55 PM
"210 EVs"
Well, if the Congress accepts Him, it's their funeral.
Posted by: Belle Starr | Jan 8, 2009 2:14:36 PM
"All he has to do is not confess ... "
The CHANGEling, you mean? I have a funny feeling somebody's gonna confess FOR Him, y'know? :^|
One feels a certain nostalgia for John Edwards, the populist with the plainly heterosexual zipper problem.
Sending incorrigible rich kids into the military to become intelligence officers, instead of to prison, might, in retrospect, NOT have been the best policy.
Posted by: Smedley Butler | Jan 8, 2009 2:09:09 PM
Belle- he wasnt even in town at the time! He never met Blago or Rezko. Cant we move on? What about Bush?
All he has to do is not confess and he probably has a built base of 30% support and 210 EVs.
Posted by: BertieW | Jan 8, 2009 1:56:22 PM
"How are you going to complete against a billion dollars?"
With the truth about Pelosi-Panetta et al.? A little history on Admiral Blair, Tom Daschle, the Chiquita banana AG pick, David Axelrod?
How's a "change" Democrat so closely aligned with right-wing military forces in Indonesia, Colombia, etc., you gotta wonder.
If the Congress goes along with Blair, they completely deserve the meltdown to come.
Posted by: Belle Starr | Jan 8, 2009 1:37:02 PM
"..Yep one term Barry."
I am not so sure he is a one termer. The guy can raise a billion dollars. And thats before he starts parceling out trillions. Everybody needs to be on his good side.
How are you going to complete against a billion dollars? Especially since the free media is going to be in favor of Barry by a 40-50 point spread.
I do think this is a one term House though.
Posted by: BertieW | Jan 8, 2009 1:22:33 PM
According to ABC news and other outlets, Feinstein and Rockefeller have clearly expressed their misgivings bout Panetta. That is why Obama is compromising by keeping Kappe in his present intelligence position.
Posted by: kat | Jan 8, 2009 1:16:13 PM
"It's understandable why Feinstein is speaking out against Panetta"
It WOULD be understandable, even laudable, if she WERE.
"Obama" symps should ask themselves why the Chicago group would go around the Oregon AND California Senators in this way in favor of Panetta, of all people.
Posted by: Belle Starr | Jan 8, 2009 12:57:04 PM
Thank you President Bush for keeping my family safe for the past seven years.
Posted by: Peace Train | Jan 8, 2009 12:51:30 PM
DiFi already said that she supports Panetta now. Jake, why isn't that in your blog?
Posted by: Cameron | Jan 8, 2009 12:49:26 PM
It's understandable why Feinstein is speaking out against Panetta if you take her voting record into consideration. She consistently supported Bush legislation on interrogation methods, war and surveillance. Rockefeller was similarly aligned with the Bush administration.
Posted by: kat | Jan 8, 2009 12:45:57 PM
WHY would the "Obama" organization put a retired Admiral with an infamous history of mutiny against "civilian authority" -- a president, if fact -- in charge of ANYTHING to do with intelligence?
If the "Obama Team" appointments are being made under coercion by some sinister force, PEBO should squeal like Piglet, perhaps to the "civilian" Justice Department, for rescue.
Posted by: Belle Starr | Jan 8, 2009 12:39:36 PM
Obama:
"WE'LL SPEND OUR WAY OUT OF THIS"
..Yep one term Barry.
Posted by: Peace Train | Jan 8, 2009 12:37:06 PM
jpt writes:
"This post has been updated."
Hmm. That replaces "The blog was updated to reflect the Obama Team's changing view of this situation."
IS the "Obama Team" suppressing the public posting of truthful information about Blair's right-wing, loose-cannon history?
WHY? is the first question -- another question is whether ABC is obliged to cooperate in suppressing information?
Is the Bill of Rights suspended? If it is, it's time for a ... REAL change.
Posted by: Smedley Butler | Jan 8, 2009 12:21:14 PM
Is this means that Team Obama are still debating?
Posted by: anonymous | Jan 8, 2009 12:19:21 PM
"We should all prepare ourselves for another attack on American soil."
The next one might NOT be an inside job, at this rate. Maybe the Brits -- or, heck, the Germans -- will invade to liberate Americans from whatever this cabal actually IS.
Posted by: Belle Starr | Jan 8, 2009 12:12:19 PM
Oooops..
Posted by: socalindep | Jan 8, 2009 12:10:52 PM
Blair has a history of corporate conflict-of-interest in uniform, and of pursuing his own foreign policy. This information is EASILY accessible on the internet, and can NOT be unknown to the "Obama" organization.
What the Hell is going on with these people? Is the Congress REALLY going to go along with this?
Posted by: Belle Starr | Jan 8, 2009 12:08:46 PM
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