Panetta Has Finished His Paperwork For CIA

One quick thing that isn’t Bob Gates-related.  Yesterday, congressional Democratic sources said that they didn’t consider it an act of bad faith that CIA Director-designate Leon Panetta didn’t finish his paperwork for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Now I’m hearing from White House sources that Panetta’s paperwork is done. The delay — much as Hill people said yesterday — was due to the fact that the Obama transition only rolled out Panetta three weeks ago, whereas it announced most of the other cabinet-level positions in November and December, meaning that Panetta had relatively limited time to get his papers in order. Add to that the unfortunate circumstance of Panetta’s mother-in-law passing away last week.

As it happens, a Senate Democratic aide hoped Panetta’s nomination hearings could proceed next week, and the White House shares that goal.