That problem is coming to pass. Last month, reports Mark Mazzetti at The New York Times, McConnell’s successor, Dennis Blair, told the community that he, and not CIA Director Leon Panetta, would select the top intelligence official overseas, possibly from agencies other than the CIA. Panetta told the CIA to ignore Blair. The White House is now working to adjudicate the dispute, but to some degree, the turf battle is the result of vagaries in the 2004 law that created the director of national intelligence. According to Mazzetti, Blair has greater congressional support:

“We need to move intelligence away from the cold war mind-set, and the C.I.A. has a problem to some extent accepting that,” said Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee.

Blair appears not to be fighting for control of Pentagon-based intelligence assets — like the spy satellites of the National Reconnaisance Office or the vast cryptological apparatus of the National Security Agency — with Defense Secretary Bob Gates, even though the Pentagon is estimated to control between 85 and 90 percent of the intelligence budget. Frequent battles for intelligence-community supremacy between CIA Director George Tenet and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld characterized President George W. Bush’s first term. Gates and McConnell attempted to resolve the inherent bureaucratic tension by making the Pentagon’s chief of intelligence and the director of national intelligence’s chief of defense intelligence the same person, a retired Air Force general named James Clapper, who continues to serve as undersecretary of defense for intelligence.

Speculation: This may be a case where the dispute is resolved — temporarily at least — by John Brennan, the White House’s counterterrorism adviser, whom President Obama initially wanted to become CIA director before Glenn Greenwald and other progressives questioned his commitment to ending torture. If so, Brennan will demonstrate that while Blair and Panetta fight it out, he’s the actual center of gravity within the intelligence community.

Now for the holdovers.

Mike Donley will remain secretary of the Air Force — unsurprising, since Defense Secretary Bob Gates hired Donley in mid-2008 after sacking the Air Force leadership over lax nuclear security. Mike Vickers, who’s running Gates’ budget review, will stay on as assistant secretary for (deep breath) special operation, low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities. Most interestingly, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jim Clapper will stay on as Pentagon intelligence czar. That position was a Rumsfeld creation, designed to seize control of the intelligence community. It came to a kind of equilibrium under Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, who dual-hatted Clapper as head of defense intelligence programs in his office. Let’s see if that remains now that McConnell’s succesor, Dennis Blair, is in charge of intelligence.

McConnell, famous for making misleading statements about warrantless surveillance and even waterboarding, didn’t really give an explanation for leaving the job early, according to AP intelligence reporter Pam Hess. I sent emails to McConnell’s spokespeople, so maybe I’ll find out more, but to level with you, I sort of doubt I will.

Hess notes that McConnell’s going back to his pre-director job at defense/intelligence/consulting giant Booz Allen Hamilton.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), the outgoing chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, helped him do it.

So it’s hardly surprising that McConnell should congratulate Rockefeller for accomplishing his mission.

Today, McConnell awarded Rockefeller the National Intelligence Distinguished Public Service Medal. (PDF) Something about that just doesn’t quite scream “aggressive congressional oversight.” Rockefeller has always been disinclined to speak up for himself, and those close to him said he never wanted the headache of a top intelligence-committee position in the first place. But it’s amazing that he doesn’t seem to realize that McConnell is laughing at him by giving him this medal.

I am very pleased to learn that President-elect Obama has nominated Admiral Dennis C. Blair to be the next DNI.

Admiral Blair has been a colleague and friend for more than 20 years. His reputation for intelligence, insight and leadership skill earned over a wide-ranging 34-year Navy career is exceptional.

If confirmed by the Senate, he will build on the efforts of the first DNI, Ambassador John Negroponte, and me to address information sharing, analytic transformation and Intelligence Community integration to make us better able to protect the Nation.

I congratulate Admiral Blair and look forward to working with him.

McConnell, who really enjoyed lying during his tenure as DNI, will unfortunately retain a position on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. On the other hand, the PFIAB has become a backwater in recent years, so maybe that’s the sort of substance-free appointment made to please David Broder.