Appointments/Disappointments

I never thought I’d be pleased that Obama appointed yet another Clintonite to high office, but I am pleased that he decided to make Leon Panetta CIA Director. Obama had the wits not to appoint someone tainted by torture, illegal wiretaps, dark ops and who knows what other criminal mischief the Cheney/Bush CIA has been up to. Who cares if Panetta has no “intelligence” experience! So long as he’s able to ride herd over the miscreants in his charge, that’s a plus in my book. And, to top it off, it pisses of off one of the most noxious Democrats in Washington, Dianne Feinstein, Chair (stool) of the Senate Committee on Intelligence. Not having been consulted, she’s already mouthing off. Panetta’s appointment also keeps Feinstein’s noxious House counterpart, Jane Harman, from getting the post. So – one and a half cheers for Obama. That’s the most he deserves for anything he’s done so far.

But what gives will Bill Richardson? Time will tell if there’s more there than they’re letting on. But whatever there is (or isn’t), Richardson’s withdrawal from the Commerce Secretary appointment is disappointing. Of all the candidates running in the Democratic primary, he was the best – excluding, of course, Dennis Kucinich, whose politics was too good for a party led by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed, Mike Gravel, my personal favorite because he wasn’t afraid to tell the others how full of shit they are, and John Edwards. [The ones even worse than Obama were the one’s he’s empowered – Joe Biden and, worst of all, Hillary Clinton. Chris Dodd was better than Obama too, but Richardson was better than Dodd on Bush’s wars and on getting out of Iraq.]

Edwards’ disappearance into the memory hole remains a mystery. Even before his “zipper” problem was exposed, he was as marginalized by the media as could be, given his electoral strength. Evidently, his “populism” was just too much for our meida moguls. [Admittedly, on foreign policy, he was probably no better than the others.] It’s too bad that he’s gone missing; he’d be a better cabinet appointment than any of the Clintonites Obama has reempowered. It’s also hard to understand, inasmuch as the Clintonite-in-Chief has a zipper problem that Edwards has only in his dreams. But such is life in the Party of Pusillanimity.