It was Richard M. Nixon who launched the career of Leon Panetta.
Actually, it was the CA RINO liberal Senator Tom Kuchel that launched Panetta's career before he went to work for HEW under fellow Californian Bob Finch after Kuchel's defeat, and then he went to work for the horrid ultra-RINO Mayor John Lindsay. He beat the last excellent GOP Congressman from Monterey County, Burt Talcott, in 1976.