It’s Looking an Awful Lot Like the Deck of the Titanic Around Here

I’m completely baffled by this move.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Obama plans this week to name CIA Director Leon E. Panetta to replace Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, now running the war in Afghanistan, would take the CIA chief’s job in a major shuffle of the country’s top national security leadership, administration and other sources said Wednesday.

All sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the changes are not final.

The changes probably would take effect this summer. Mr. Gates already has said he will leave this year, and the White House wants to schedule Senate confirmation hearings in the coming months.

I honestly have no idea what would prompt the White House to make these moves. I would have thought Petraeus a better fit at the Pentagon, where he has experience not only with the military bureaucracy but also with the war we’re currently fighting against the Islamists. Panetta appears to be doing a competent job at the CIA, or at least he’s not botched things so badly that he needs to move. Of course, there could be a lot more to this story than I know about. Hopefully a few folks with better knowledge than I can fill in some of the blanks.

I do know this. The President’s base will not be happy about General Petraeus’ promotion. Remember that MoveOn paid quite a bit of money for a full-page ad in the New York Times just to smear Petraeus. The left had to swallow quite a lot of bile when the President promoted Petraeus to head our efforts in Afghanistan. I’m not sure they’re able to do it again. We will almost certainly hear cries of anguish over this, either now or during his Senate confirmation hearing.

As for the rest, well, I just can’t say. President Obama is surely re-arranging the deck chairs. I’m just not sure to what end. What I fear is that he doesn’t exactly know either.

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Category: Political Pontifications, The Long War Here At Home