I’m no fan of Panetta, but if this story is true and I were in his position I’d stay at CIA as long as possible, because I’d know the Director that replaced me would be a potted plant.
Or much, much worse.
Consider this...Panetta was not the first, second or third choices for the CIA job. It took them a long while because people found problems with candidate one...and I think both the second and third came to a point of just saying “no”. So Panetta was asked to just fill in. I don’t think the White House or Panetta aimed for this to be more than twelve to eighteen months.
Lets admit this....Panetta has zero talent or skill at this entire business. It probably took alot o discussions and agreements to get him to sign on and agree to this job that he doesn’t really want. He probably discussed the chances of this investigation business and was probably assured that the president would not allow it to go to this degree. Obviously, this gentleman’s understanding didn’t hold up.
What happens now? Panetta now has no reason to stay on and I would imagine that he will announce his “retirement” to occur this next week...after the President returns from the vacation.
So lets go to what happens within the CIA. Almost every single employee will take this as a threat to themselves. The management will tell them all that they are safe, and to just shut up.
So the AG and his investigators arrive....to find CIA guys smiling. No one cooperates with them and claims whatever they know....is classified and the AG doesn’t have a need to know (this drilled into every military and CIA analyst from day one).
As days go by....CIA operations overseas start to deteriorate and operatives now start to question everything of their bosses. Who authorized this mission? What director approved it? What was the original intent? Who is paying for what? CIA management starts to meet and discuss the mess. The KGB monitoring them...starts to laugh and report this mess daily back to Moscow.
So the spring of 2011 comes...the Republicans have taken back the house (but not the Senate). They start requesting the AG to meet with them. They start to get confrontational over the mess. No individual from the CIA is ever brought into court because the AG eventually offers his resignation.
You also have to consider this. Eric Holder may very well be the Democratic nominee for senator in Illinois. So this entire mess could be dropped by February as he runs out of steam and decides to move on.
OK, I’m thinking r9etb is probably right (don’t know how I didn’t see it before...duh) but I also thought of this reason: This kerfuffle will get health care off the front page. Moreover, as Limbaugh pointed out today, these guys all think America agrees with them on treatment of terrorists, so this may be a hamhanded effort to boost Zero’s approval ratings.