A Guide to Panetta’s Confirmation Hearing

CIA Nominee Can Expect Tough Questions

By Spencer Ackerman
2/5/09 5:00 AM

It’s been a rough month for Leon Panetta. First, in early January, President Obama’s choice to become the next director of the CIA met swift opposition from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, owing to Panetta’s lack of experience with the intelligence community. That ended in part because Panetta vowed to keep Steve Kappes, the well-regarded deputy director of the CIA, in his position — which in turn sparked a round of speculation as to whether Kappes, and not Panetta, would be the real power at Langley. Then the lateness of his nomination announcement — Obama was probably going to appoint ex-CIA senior official John Brennan to the job originally, and then had trouble finding a nominee after Brennan dropped out under fire from the left — delayed his confirmation hearing before Feinstein’s panel for a week because he couldn’t finish the necessary pre-hearing paperwork in time. If that wasn’t enough, last week his mother-in-law passed away.