And most importantly, when Panetta speaks in the privacy of the Oval Office, he will be heard with an attention that may be unprecedented in the annals of CIA Directors, especially in the administrations of Democratic Presidents. Not just because Panetta is 20 years senior to the President, but because, along with that seniority, he may lay some claim to “statesmanship” – a word so rarely heard in Washington over a half century that its mere utterance brings cynical smirks to knowing lips.
For these reasons, I believe the Panetta CIA will be worth watching, and, writing from Panetta’s “back-yard” – I’ve long lived In the congressional district he once represented in Washington - I intend to keep my historian’s peripheral vision turned toward Langley in the coming year.
And so the Panetta Watch begins.
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