Intel Community Sees Potential in Panetta

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) might be hating on Leon Panetta, but Rep. Rush Holt, the progressive New Jersey congressman who chairs the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, just put out this statement welcoming Panetta’s impending nomination to head the CIA:

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Al Franken, calling himself “the next senator from Minnesota,” said Monday afternoon he is ready to go to Washington to get to work just as soon as possible.

But Franken didn’t respond to reporters’ shouted questions about exactly when he would go to Washington and retreated up the front steps of his downtown Minneapolis townhouse with his wife, Frannie, and campaign aides.

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Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan — who is currently campaigning to keep his job — is accusing Senate Democrats of trying to steal the U.S. Senate election in Minnesota, and he expressed confidence that incumbent Republican Norm Coleman will emerge victorious.

Here’s his press release in full:

“Minnesota law reads that an election contest – not Harry Reid – should decide the winner of a contested election. The efforts of Al Franken, Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer to steal this election and seat Al Franken despite not having an election certificate are unprecedented.

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As Daphne blogged earlier today, Dawn Johnsen of Indiana University Law School is going to helm the Justice Dept.’s Office of Legal Counsel, a crucial position for the balance between civil liberties and national security. (Under the Bush administration, it became the go-to office for rubber-stamping the legality of torture, indefinite detention and warrantless surveillance.) Civil libertarians appear fairly happy with the appointment.

The ACLU doesn’t take positions on nominees, but “it’s a suggestion that the Obama administration will carry through on a committment to respect the rule of law,” said Caroline Fredrickson, the ACLU’s Washington director. Fredrickson, who knows Johnsen personally, said she was optimistic about the new prospective OLC chief, owing to Johnsen’s legal writings on issues like executive authority.

“To the extent she helps restore the boundaries of the executive branch vis-a-vis the other [governmental] branches,” Fredrickson said, “it’s an important effort.”

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Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who’s about to take the reins as chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, doesn’t appear to be too happy with Leon Panetta’s prospective appointment to head the CIA. Here’s what her office just sent me:

“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director.  I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,” said Senator Feinstein, who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111^th Congress.

“My position has consistently been that I believe the Agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”

Not an auspicious sign for Panetta’s confirmation hearings.

Here’s one thing that bears mentioning now that it appears Leon Panetta is President-elect Barack Obama’s to head the CIA. Given the worries about whether John Brennan might have been too soft on torture — put aside the merits of that contention for a moment — no one can have that fear about Panetta. Here’s something he wrote about torture for the Washington Monthly last year:

We cannot simply suspend [American ideals of human rights] in the name of national security. Those who support torture may believe that we can abuse captives in certain select circumstances and still be true to our values. But that is a false compromise. We either believe in the dignity of the individual, the rule of law, and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, or we don’t. There is no middle ground.

We cannot and we must not use torture under any circumstances. We are better than that.

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It’s official: the Minnesota State Canvassing Board has just certified DFL-er Al Franken as the junior U.S. senator from Minnesota.

The Norm Coleman campaign is expected to contest this result via lawsuit.

Update: Paul Demko, over at our sister site, The Minnesota Independent, has more details here.