Leon Panetta is confirmed

He'll be CIA director. The debate has been about whether he would bring the right skill set to the job, but considering that virtually every CIA director has had a tenure ranging from mediocre to disastrous--and that includes everyone from politicians like George H.W. Bush (mediocre) to career guys like Richard Helms (disaster, though he did have his moments). What we could really use is someone who a) commands the respect of the rank and file officers there and b) who is dedicated to building up the intelligence framework rather than trying to use covert ops to conduct foreign policy on the cheap. Being as literally every single director for fifty years has gone with the latter approach on point (b)--no doubt because presidents wanted it that way--I wonder if Panetta will be successful, though he will likely be effective because of his political clout. And it's good that Panetta is strongly against torture, but I'd be more interested in hearing from him about his vision for the CIA.