I Think The Honeymoon Just Ended

I was willing to give President-Elect Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt when he nominated Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary (though, as Frank Rich pointed out in the New York Times yesterday, it’s a little disconcerting that both Geithner and Larry Summers served in the Treasury Department under President Clinton, where they helped repeal the Glass-Steagall Act and weaken financial oversight – Summers is also a senior Obama economic advisor; Treasury was run by Robert Rubin back then, whose “brilliant” ledership subsequent to his Clinton work experience has led to the current calamitous state of Citigroup, where 52,000 employees have currently lost their jobs despite the fact that Rubin has claimed approximately $115 million in salary since 1999).

I was also willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt when he asked Robert Gates to stay on as defense secretary, primarily because, though he is a Repug through and through, Gates has not acted as a typical neocon in his almost-two-year stint running the Pentagon, and I can see that continuity would be a good thing (please allow me to paraphrase The Rude Pundit who, I think, correctly surmised that true agents of change at this moment would be those who have thus far enforced the status quo in many cases).

I will also admit that I missed the boat on the situation with John Brennan, who was tapped by Obama as transition chief for intelligence policy before he was rightly drummed out of that role by Glenn Greenwald, Jane Hamsher and others (for reasons Greenwald provides here).

But I’m sorry; I absolutely cannot remain silent in the face of this post (h/t Atrios) based on speculation from U.S. News that Obama might ask Michael Hayden “to stay on for awhile” as the head of the CIA.

As noted here, Hayden did not want to issue a report claiming that former CIA Director George Tenet did not marshal his agency's resources to respond to the recognized threat posed by al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Hayden also defended the CIA’s decision to destroy “at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two al-Qaeda operatives in the agency’s custody” (here).

And he has also been a cheerleader for Bushco’s warrantless surveillance (here).

Just because VP-elect Joe Biden voted to confirm Hayden (here, with Snarlin' Arlen actually doing the right thing for a change), that doesn’t mean that he’s qualified to serve once more, assuming he was ever qualified for the job at all.

Update 12/9/08: More from Glenzilla here (h/t Jay Ackroyd at Eschaton)...