Leon Panetta
Leon Panetta
Leon Edward Panettais an American statesman, lawyer, and professor. He served in the Obama administration as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2009 to 2011, and as Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013. A Democrat, Panetta was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993, served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994, and as President Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997. He is...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth28 June 1938
CityMonterey, CA
CountryUnited States of America
assess good invaded iraq issue locked stand tragedy
One of the things that has made Iraq such a tragedy is you've got the administration, which is kind of locked into its view; you've got Congress, which is scrambling all over the place; and politics, which has invaded this issue on all sides. The good thing here is we can stand back and assess this.
address allowed allowing basically days gore house hurt imagine issue job number president priority rest run states terms therefore trying united vice whatever white
I have a sense they have basically allowed the vice president to run his own show in the White House, and for whatever reason, the vice president is not accountable to the rest of the White House or to the president. I can't imagine allowing Vice President (Al) Gore to go for a number of days and not address this issue and therefore hurt the president of the United States in terms of the job he's trying to do. The first priority in the White House is not the vice president. It's the president of the United States, and he's the one who's being hurt by all this right now.
agendas based basically both drive increase interests issues partisan result sides special trench warfare
As a result of the kind of partisan trench warfare that's going on in Washington, the special interests on both sides basically drive the agendas based on those issues that increase their membership, and that's what's going on here.
thinking korea issues
China is a major power in the Pacific and I think we are dealing with some common threats in that region: the whole issue of Korea and the stability of Korea, the whole issue of nuclear proliferation, the whole issue of providing free access to our ships that are operating in that area.
issues years budgets
Throughout the 40 years I've been in Washington, I've always worked hard, particularly with regards to the budget issues.
military law issues
The most important thing we can do is prosecute the offenders, deal with those that have broken the law and committed this crime. And if we can do that then we can begin to deal with this issue and send a signal this is not a problem that we are going to ignore in the United States military.
good means relationship sob tough
You have to have a good relationship with the president, but you also have to be a tough SOB to get things done. And that means not only being tough with the staff, but, occasionally, tough with the president.
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Both sides of the spectrum are really going to use the opportunity provided by Katrina to really begin to test some ideas that they otherwise couldn't test.
action bites deficit public support translate
The public does not translate the deficit into something that really bites them. We are going to have to get public support for action on the deficit.
borrowing haunt none paid
None of this is being paid for. At some point, all of that borrowing comes back to haunt you.
anyone battle counts democratic dunk huge name slam uphill
On the Democratic side, it's an uphill battle for anyone who runs. I don't think it's a slam dunk at all. Schwarzenegger has huge name identity, and that counts for a lot.
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I was at the White House at that time. We were concerned that when the president vetoed these things, he would bear responsibility for the shutdown. But Congress in the end became the vocal point for public anger. And that could be the case with this Congress as well.
baseless consequences leads repair step time work
If these are baseless charges, it'll be OK. On the other hand, if there's something there, and it leads to him having to step out of office, it may be time to do some repair work and that may not have the consequences you would expect,
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My conclusion is that at this late date, it's just not realistic to expect that I could put together an effective campaign,