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.

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.