Leon Panetta needs to rethink what he is doing to put it mildly.

[MADem]

27. I can't speak for him at all, certainly not based on an encounter going back two-plus decades.

I can give you my impression, and I didn't see him as a neocon (then, anyway). In fact, the context of my interaction with him had to do with the impending military drawdown of the nineties, and this was several years before it actually went into full force--it was in the "sketching out" phase, as it were. He didn't seem to be railing against it; he approached it as more of a cost-benefit issue, smart cuts, targeted and intelligent decision - making WRT reductions, and he was focused on efficiencies.

What "Republican message" do you mean? My last former Republican Senator was that asshole Scott Brown...before that, it was Ed Brooke and I don't think he's talking much! If you're talking about Nekkid Scottie, I can't even watch his awful over-the-border hilarious-in-their-awfulness commercials without busting a gut! I hear his whining voice and I just tune out. To call that guy an empty suit is to give a bad name to empty suits...!