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Panetta started politics in 1966 as a legislative assistant to Republican Senator Thomas Kuchel, the United States Senate Minority Whip from California, whom Panetta has called "a tremendous role model"[1].
In 1969 he became the assistant to Robert H. Finch, Secretary of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under the Nixon administration. Soon thereafter he was appointed Director of the Office for Civil Rights.
Panetta chose to enforce civil rights and equal education laws, even under political pressure not to from then-president Nixon, who was implementing his "Southern strategy". Robert Mardian said of Panetta: "Doesn't he understand Nixon promised the Southern delegates he would stop enforcing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts?"[2]. Secretary Finch and Assistant Secretary John Veneman refused to fire Panetta, threatening to resign if forced to do so. A few weeks later in 1970, Panetta resigned and left Washington to work as Executive Assistant for John Lindsay, the Republican Mayor of New York City. He wrote about this experience in his 1971 book Bring Us Together: The Nixon Team and the Civil Rights Retreat.
He moved back to Monterey to practice law at Panetta, Thompson & Panetta from 1971 through to 1976.
Congressional work
Panetta switched to the Democratic Party in 1971, as he felt the Republican Party was moving away from the center and was working against civil rights legislation. In 1976 he was elected to Congress to represent California's 16th congressional district (the 17th district after the 1990 census), and was reelected for nine terms.
During his time in Congress, his work concentrated mostly on budget issues, civil rights, education, health, and environmental issues, particularly preventing oil drilling off the California coast. He wrote the Hunger Prevention Act (Public Law 100-435) of 1988 and the Fair Employment Practices Resolution. He was a major factor in establishing the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
His positions included:
* Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Budget
* Chairman of the Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing, Consumer Relations, and Nutrition
* Chairman of the Administration Committee's Subcommittee on Personnel and Police
* Chairman of the Task Force on Domestic Hunger created by the U.S. House Select Committee on Hunger
* Vice Chairman of the Caucus of Vietnam-Era Veterans in Congress
* Member of the President's Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies.
Budget work
Panetta (right) meets with National Security Advisor Anthony Lake and President Clinton in 1994.
He was a key participant of the 1990 Budget Summit, and served on the U.S. House Committee on the Budget from 1979 to 1985, as well as being the chairman from 1989 to 1993.
In 1993, the beginning of his ninth term, he was chosen by then-President Bill Clinton to be Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget. He is credited with developing the budget package that would eventually result in the balanced budget of 1998. On July 17, 1994, he was appointed White House Chief of Staff by Clinton, a position he held until January 20, 1997. He was an important negotiator of the 1996 budget, which was another important step towards balancing the budget.

I dont see any qualifications for CIA director in your brief resume on Panetta. THsi is a joke. Will anyone question this at all. Did he run out of Clinton people to choose from. Why not Lewinsky, she hid blue dress’s well.

The Panetta bio has a reference to a photo with Anthony Lake. Wow, that is quite an indictment.

What is Opossum’s criteria? At least one night at the local Holiday Express?

We have a “select committee” on hunger?? sheesh.

Thanks for posting that. Appreciated.

And does all that make him and expert managing CIA?
I have a degree in computers, but it would not qualify me to be a chef, or a builder.

omg he is a bean counter who’s greatest experience is in civil rights!
Imagine a civil rights activist being in charge of gathering intelligence on foreign insurgents??

Might as well just put a bullseye on a map of the USA and distribute it through mecca.