My Letter to CIA Director Leon Panetta

To Mr. Leon Panetta:

I happen to be a very sharp critic of the Obama administration and many of its officials and supporters in Congress; to the point where I have resigned to converting to conservatism to preserve my own sanity and integrity. That having been said, however, I wanted to point you out in some way as what I consider the one bright shining light of this ass-backwards government of ours.

I have now seen you repeatedly, vigorously and passionately defend your agency and its employees against the harshest criticism it has probably ever received in its history; I believe quite unfairly, I might add. Regardless of whatever qualms (many of them) I have about the direction of the policy the Central Intelligence Agency is being asked to follow under President Obama, I at least know there is one person who genuinely -- by the evidence of his actions -- has the best interests of our national intelligence effort at heart, and that's you.

Please keep hanging in there and keep being you. This nation has no better official serving it in the executive branch in these darkening days, and I'm proud of how you have been comporting yourself. You are a Mensch.

07/13/11 -- Update... http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58670.html ... Now Panetta is defense secretary for a week and a half, and demonstrates complete, total, and arrogant ignorance of Arab feelings and customs in his "Make a decision, damn it!" outburst in front of the media, and hence in front of all of Iraq. Anyone who's read Schwarzkopf's autobiography knows you can't resolve anything in the Arab world without long extended conversations, teas, shared meals, exchanges of pleasantries, and a whole lot of politeness. As of this date he has only been there a few days!! And only his second week as Secretary of Defense. If I were the President, seeing this display of childish pique as our avatar to a 6,000 year old civilization, Panetta would be out the door and GONE.