Obama, Part II: Remodeling the cabinetry

[CountDeMoney]

I don't think she was using it as much as it all started from a "stay away from him" catfight, and devolved from there.

[Ed Anger]

This is why women are unfit to rule. Their vagina's, when inflamed, shut down their tiny brains.

[Strix]

 

[garbon]

This is why women are unfit to rule. Their vagina's, when inflamed, shut down their tiny brains.

An odd statement to make in a thread about a man who was clearly thinking with his inflamed region and not his brain.

[Legbiter]

Guy could contain and crush a couple Islamoid insurgencies easy peasy, but can't keep a camp follower/bed warmer in line? 

[The Minsky Moment]

Would be so cool if she turned out to be a Russian spy.

But I just came out of a James Bond marathon.

"Broadwell" does have a appropriate Bondgirlish ring to it.

[Valmy]

This is why women are unfit to rule. Their vagina's, when inflamed, shut down their tiny brains.

An odd statement to make in a thread about a man who was clearly thinking with his inflamed region and not his brain.

Ed Anger may not be entirely even handed in making gender-related internet trolls.

[The Great Santini]

This is why women are unfit to rule. Their vagina's, when inflamed, shut down their tiny brains.

An odd statement to make in a thread about a man who was clearly thinking with his inflamed region and not his brain.

Ed Anger may not be entirely even handed in making gender-related internet trolls.

He can be such a dick.

[frunk]

He can be such a dick.

The Elmo thread is here.

[Razgovory]

This is why women are unfit to rule. Their vagina's, when inflamed, shut down their tiny brains.

An odd statement to make in a thread about a man who was clearly thinking with his inflamed region and not his brain.

Ed Anger may not be entirely even handed in making gender-related internet trolls.

He can be such a dick.

I do wish he'd stop watching me masturbate.  That's kinda creepy.

[mongers]

You can promote a man however much you wish, but he'll still be outranked by private Percy Penis.

[CountDeMoney]

Former CIA director David H. Petraeus told the woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to stop sending threatening e-mails to a family friend, Jill Kelley, after a federal investigation determined who was behind the harassment.

The move by Petraeus came in mid-summer after Kelley contacted a friend who worked as an FBI agent in Tampa, where she lived, beginning a process that would eventually force the former four-star former general to resign last week.

The new information, provided by two law enforcement officials, helps fill in a summer timeline when Petraeus's e-mail account became the subject of a federal investigation into whether national security had been compromised during his affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell.

Broadwell, a former Harvard University researcher who focused her dissertation on Petraeus's military career, hired longtime Washington criminal defense attorney Robert F. Muse, the lawyer said Monday.

Attempts to reach Broadwell since Petraeus resigned Friday have been unsuccessful.

Federal investigators have said Broadwell sent a series of e-mails to Kelley from an anonymous account telling her to stop behavior she saw as overly friendly toward Petraeus, or she would be exposed. The law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the e-mails indicate Broadwell felt jealous of the other woman.

The e-mails did not specifically cite Kelley's friendship with Petraeus, according to a person close to Kelley, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. She did not know who was sending them and why.

Kelley contacted her friend in the FBI, who took her concerns to the bureau. Investigators were later able to trace the e-mails to Broadwell.

In Broadwell's account, investigators found e-mails from Petraeus, and given the personal nature of some of them, believed at first that they were being sent by someone who had hacked into the CIA director's account.

Kelley was informed that Broadwell was the sender, although she told investigators that she did not know the woman, according to the person close to Kelley.

At some point, Kelley told Petraeus about the e-mails and named Broadwell as the person who had sent them. That may have prompted the CIA director to send his own e-mails to Broadwell, telling her to stop the harassment, the law enforcement officials said.

People close to Petraeus say his affair with Broadwell ended four months ago, around the time he e-mailed her about the harassment.

When confronted by FBI agents about the e-mails, Broadwell acknowledged the affair with Petraeus and turned over her computer to investigators. Petraeus, who has been married to Holly Petraeus for 38 years, also acknowledged the extramarital relationship in his interview with the FBI.

By late summer, the FBI informed the Justice Department about the case. Federal prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to file charges against Petraeus, who was interviewed by investigators during the week of Oct. 21. Broadwell was interviewed by agents for the last time the week before.

The FBI agent in Tampa had been taken off the investigation by that time. He was frustrated by the investigation's apparent lack of progress, according to the person close to Kelley.

But the agent recently got in touch with the Washington office of Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) to express concern. Reichert then contacted Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.), the House Republican leader.

"I was contacted by an F.B.I. employee concerned that sensitive, classified information may have been compromised and made certain Director Mueller was aware of these serious allegations and the potential risk to our national security," Cantor said in a statement issued Saturday. He referred to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

[MadImmortalMan]

Man you just know they were high on the drama. 

[CountDeMoney]

Kerry at DOD, Rice at State, John Brennan at CIA

Obama considering John Kerry for job of defense secretary
By Karen DeYoung and Greg Miller, Monday, November 12, 7:31 PM

President Obama is considering asking Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) to serve as his next defense secretary, part of an extensive rearrangement of his national security team that will include a permanent replacement for former CIA director David H. Petraeus.

Although Kerry is thought to covet the job of secretary of state, senior administration officials familiar with transition planning said that nomination will almost certainly go to Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

John O. Brennan, Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, is a leading contender for the CIA job if he wants it, officials said. If Brennan goes ahead with his plan to leave government, Michael J. Morell, the agency's acting director, is the prohibitive favorite to take over permanently. Officials cautioned that the White House discussions are still in the early phases and that no decisions have been made.

Petraeus's resignation last week after revelations of an extramarital affair have complicated what was already an intricate puzzle to reassemble the administration's national security and diplomatic pieces for Obama's second term.

The process has become further complicated by congressional ire over not being told that Petraeus was under FBI investigation, on top of what are likely to be contentious closed-door hearings this week over administration actions surrounding the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Rice, one of an inner circle of aides who have been with Obama since his first presidential campaign in 2007, is under particular fire over the Benghazi incident, in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested that she was part of what they suspect was an initial, election-related attempt to portray the attack as a peaceful demonstration that turned violent, rather than what the administration now acknowledges was an organized terrorist assault.

Rice's description, days after the attack, of a protest gone wrong was either intentionally misleading or incompetent, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday. Rice, he said, "would have an in­cred­ibly difficult time" winning Senate confirmation as secretary of state.

But several White House officials said Obama is prepared to dig in his heels over her nomination to replace outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Rice's post-Benghazi remarks on several television news shows were merely a recitation of administration talking points drawn directly from intelligence available at the time, said the senior administration officials, who agreed to discuss the closely held transition planning only on the condition of anonymity.

Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, said the White House would not comment on personnel matters.

The upcoming hearings and an independent State Department review of the Benghazi attack — being led by retired diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — may reveal some intelligence lapses and security missteps, one official said. But they will also demonstrate that there was no attempt at subterfuge, the official added.

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter also has been mentioned as a possible replacement for Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, as has been Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary for policy at the Pentagon.

The timing of a nomination for Panetta's successor is unclear. On Monday, he said he had no imminent plans to step down but indicated that he was unlikely to stay in the job for the duration of Obama's second term.

"Who the hell knows," Panetta said, when asked by reporters traveling with him to Australia whether he would remain in office for four more years. "It's no secret that at some point I'd like to get back to California."

Kerry did not respond to requests for comment on his possible nomination at the Pentagon. A spokesperson, Jodi Seth, said: "Senator Kerry's only focus right now is his job as senior senator from Massachusetts and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee."

But administration officials, one of whom described Kerry as a "war hero," said his qualifications for the defense job included not only his naval service in Vietnam but also his knowledge of the budget and experience in the diplomacy that has increasingly become a part of the defense portfolio. They said the Democrats' retention of the Senate majority, with a net gain of two seats, in last week's election provided a cushion that allowed them to consider Kerry's departure from the chamber.

White House national security adviser Thomas E. Donilon, principal deputy Denis R. McDonough and Benjamin Rhodes, deputy for strategic communications, are more likely than not to remain in place, at least initially, officials said.

Antony J. Blinken, Vice President Biden's national security adviser, is said to be under consideration for Rice's job at the United Nations, as is Samantha Power, the National Security Council's senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights.

It was unclear who would take Brennan's job if he leaves government or moves to the CIA. He was the top contender to lead the agency when Obama was first elected in 2008, but he withdrew under criticism, which he deemed unfair, of his role in intelligence excesses under the administration of George W. Bush. Although that challenge is now seen as behind him, officials said he has not indicated whether he would like to be considered again to head the agency where he spent 25 years.

Beyond complicating the overhaul of the national security team, Petraeus's departure will send ripples through management layers at the CIA.

Many had expected Petraeus to stay in place for Obama's second term, and he had spent recent months planning transitions at other key posts at CIA headquarters. Now, four of the agency's most critical positions — director, deputy director, head of the National Clandestine Service and chief of the Counterterrorism Center — have become question marks.

Within hours of Petraeus's resignation Friday, his biography was excised from the CIA Web site and replaced with that of Morell.

Michael G. Vickers, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, also has been mentioned as a candidate for CIA director.

If Morell ends up permanently in the job, he will need to designate a new deputy and would be in charge of other pending personnel decisions that Petraeus had been poised to make.

The head of the clandestine service, John Bennett, was talked out of retirement to take that job and has signaled his intent to step down in the coming months, current and former officials said.

The top position in the Counterterrorism Center, which carries out the CIA's drone campaign, is also expected to come open. The current director, known by his cover name "Roger," has been in the job for more than six years. Former CIA officials said Roger has wanted to be named director of the clandestine service but has a reputation for harshness toward subordinates and had been expected to be passed over by Petraeus.

Morell was considered a standout analyst at the CIA before entering the agency's upper ranks and is highly respected among his colleagues and at the White House. Obama, a White House official said, "has enormous trust in [Morell's] ability to lead the CIA for as long as is necessary." He is also considered a possible candidate to replace Brennan at the White House.

[Ed Anger]

Great, long face in charge.