Is Panetta The Next 'Problem'?

[Annie]

This is quickly becoming a farce:

Will Leon Panetta be the next body under Obama's bus? | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times

It's been a bumpy few days on the new Obama administration bus, what with all the bodies throwing themselves under the shiny chassis -- Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer and the ones yet to come from the transition team that missed the bones in Bill Richardson's closet and Daschle's and Geithner's and Killefer's tax returns.

In public, stand-up political bosses like Barack Obama are, well, stand-up, obediently shouldering the full blame like medicine from Mom. Americans like that and turn very forgiving when they hear it. So, Obama did that so sincerely and stoically on every TV network last night.

The buck stops here and all that, which drew hearty praise today from Robert Gibbs, Obama's own press secretary. But, in private, those bosses really, really don't like to have to do that. And someone will pay. If he/she hasn't already....

...Apparently, his reports to ethics officials indicate the onetime congressman who hung around Washington anyway is now worth nearly $4 million, which makes hanging around Washington seem a worthy pastime for washed-up pols. Last year Panetta took in about $1.2 million in investments, consulting and speaking fees, plus other income from corporate boards like BP and banks that have now failed or taken bailout money like Wachovia. Let's all do that.

All this despite being so intimately involved in the Obama campaign.

Panetta also got thousands of dollars from at least one security-related company that he might be dealing with from his secret CIA director's office in the Langley Batcave that carries the annoyingly Republican Bush name on it.....

CIA Panetta's fees: Defense, banking: The Swamp

...Panetta initially had encountered only minor political turbulence, when Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) expressed dismay at having not been informed of the administration's nominee before he was announced. But now, in the wake of Tom Daschle's withdrawal from nomination to a Cabinet post amid controversy over back taxes that he only recently paid and consulting fees he drew from health care interests, the administration's CIA chief is likely to face some questions about potential conflicts. The intelligence community already is wary of an outsider taking charge.

Some of Panetta's speaking and consulting fees came from troubled banks and an investment firm that owns companies that do business with federal security agencies -- a $28,000 honorarium from the Carlyle Group. A Carlyle spokesman, Chris Ullman, told Bloomberg that Panetta spoke at an annual investors' conference, "which is unrelated to any of our portfolio companies," such as Booz Allen Hamilton,, an intelligence contractor for the government....

The White House doesn't sound very worried, however. Panetta's income and investments "have been thoroughly reviewed by the Office of Government Ethics,'' spokesman Tommy Vietor says. "We anticipate that tomorrow's hearing will focus on the substance of Mr. Panetta's views about how to strengthen our intelligence gathering and keep our nation safe.''

They thought Daschel fine, right up to the last hours.

 

[rayboyusmc]

Unfortunately, most ex politicians on both sides hang around Washington to make big bucks.

At least, whoever, serves in Obama's cabinet won't be able to do this for two years after he leaves office in 2016. That is more than any other prez has mandated.

We will probably never really clean up the crap there since the people with the brooms are the ones who will make the money.

 

[editec]

Finding a long term play on the Washington scene who is not dirty in one way or the other is rather difficult, isn't it?

But hey, when editec notes that we are in a class war, and that the servants of the ruling classes have been in a revolving door from power in government to powerful positions where they petition the government on the behalf of their corporate masters, I'm thought to be an envious outsider who is overstating the problem.

Registered lobbyists are the least of our problems, folks.

It's the lobbyists who are not registered who weld the greatest power, and it becomes difficult to find players who know how things work (because they've been in the game for years) who have not benefitted personally and in ways that make them look dirty to put into positions of power.

I'm not in any way trying to make excuses for Obmama here, I'm just noting that the system is so dirty, that Obama's task is similar to the task that Diogenes set out for himself.

 

[toomuchtime_]

Unfortunately, most ex politicians on both sides hang around Washington to make big bucks.

At least, whoever, serves in Obama's cabinet won't be able to do this for two years after he leaves office in 2016. That is more than any other prez has mandated.

We will probably never really clean up the crap there since the people with the brooms are the ones who will make the money.

Of course they will, and there's nothing Obama can do about it.

 

[toomuchtime_]

Finding a long term play on the Washington scene who is not dirty in one way or the other is rather difficult, isn't it?

But hey, when editec notes that we are in a class war, and that the servants of the ruling classes have been in a revolving door from power in government to powerful positions where they petition the government on the behalf of their corporate masters, I'm thought to be an envious outsider who is overstating the problem.

Registered lobbyists are the least of our problems, folks.

It's the lobbyists who are not registered who weld the greatest power, and it becomes difficult to find players who know how things work (because they've been in the game for years) who have not benefitted personally and in ways that make them look dirty to put into positions of power.

I'm not in any way trying to make excuses for Obmama here, I'm just noting that the system is so dirty, that Obama's task is similar to the task that Diogenes set out for himself.

There is no class war and there is no ruling class in America. These are 19th century ideas that that sought to describe 19th century European, mostly Germany and Britain, nations. If you look at the leaders of US industries, few of them were born into privilege; they nearly all started from the same place where the people who work for them started, but they were smarter and more ambitious and so became more successful than their neighbors did. Wherever you look in America, whether in business or politics or anywhere else, with few exceptions the people who wield power worked their way up from modest beginnings into positions of power and there are no barriers to prevent other people born into modest circumstances with talent and ambition from working their ways into these same positions. It's time to stop complaining about 19th century European phantoms and to recognize America is very close to being the true meritocracy the most liberal of the founding fathers envisioned; we are one class and whether you rise to the top of that class or settle somewhere below depends almost entirely on your native talent and ambition and perhaps a bit of luck.