Ex-agent Robert Baer: Feinstein wrong, CIA needs an 'adult in charge'

When word came out that Barack Obama intends to nominate former Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta to head the CIA, incoming Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Diane Feinstein was not only miffed that she had not been consulted but also fretted that "I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time."Former CIA officer and Time columnist Bob Baer sharply disagrees.

He told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Tuesday, "She's wrong. We need an adult in charge." "We need somebody with political influence in Washington, a player, an advocate for the CIA," Baer explained. "We had George Tenet all these years.

He was essentially a staffer and went along with the torture, went along with the WMD -- the false reporting on that. We need a player, a former cabinet member who can deal with the president. He's a good pick."Baer wrote in his Time column on Tuesday, "Leon Panetta may not have an intelligence background, but his appointment as CIA director shows that Barack Obama understands the CIA's problems. ... Panetta is experienced enough to understand that the CIA was the victim of political manipulation under the Bush Administration."

Baer told Maddow that in referring to the "CIA's problems," he meant not only that "it has to get through the investigations ... of renditions, of torture, of secret prisons," but also that "the place is flooded with contractors. It's completely politicized, demoralized. It needs a spokesman in this administration."

"He can go into the Oval Office, put his legs up on the desk, and say, "Mr. President, we can't do it this way,'" Baer said of Panetta. "A professional could never do that. And number two is he can stand up to Hillary Clinton ... and stand up to Bob Gates at the Pentagon."Some observers, including Maddow, have suggested that Obama's pick of Panetta, together with his failure to consult with either Feinstein or outgoing Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Jay Rockefeller, was a deliberate rebuke to their failure to exercise meaningful oversight during the Bush administration.

Scott Horton, for example, writes, "The bottom line is that Jay Rockefeller was an abject failure when it came to intelligence oversight. His term as ranking member and then chair of the Senate intelligence committee was one in which Congress generally, and the Senate in particular, failed to live up to their Constitutional mandate. ... The Rockefeller-Feinstein record was little short of disastrous. I’m delighted that the Obama team didn’t consult them."

Read on.

Update: Feinstein changes her mind. After complaining that she was not informed in advance about Barack Obama’s choice of Leon Panetta to head the CIA, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) now says she’ll support the nomination.