Leon Panetta is a scary, scary man

[markpkessinger]

16. Rachel Maddow called him out on her show on Monday night . . .

. . . here's an excerpt of the relevant part of the transcript:

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Leon Panetta published a book last week talking all sorts of smack against President Obama. He has since been doing an aggressive series of national media interviews talking about how President Obama is a bad leader and he`s weak and he`s made bad decisions about national security issues that Leon Panetta would have done better.

This time around, there`s something weird going an. We`ve something like this with Don Regan and the Reagan era, and we saw something like this with Dick Morris, and the Clinton era. But this one in the Obama era has something weird going on, because the criticisms that Leon Panetta is lobbying levying against President Obama do not seem to be his own criticisms. And I mean it this way. When Leon Panetta was defense secretary, he staunchly defended and argued for President Obama`s decision to take U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Now that Panetta has fled Washington and written his tell-all book, he says taking troops out of Iraq, that was a terrible decision. He wouldn`t have taken troops out of Iraq at all.

He`s also complaining now that President Obama was basically too slow on decisions about Syria, too deliberate. He`s taking in too much information and just not acting fast enough when it came to the question of getting involved in Syria. President Obama is basically saying that the beef on Panetta is Obama is too darn careful.

Leon Panetta knew better. He would have rushed right in on Syria. That`s what he says now that he`s selling his tell-all, right?

Here`s what he said about it when he was actually defense secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: It`s not that easy to deal with some of the concerns that are out there. But nevertheless, we`re working at it. We are trying to engage with these other countries.

There are other countries that are interested in trying to provide provisions. We are working with them. We are talking with them. And we are looking at every option to try to put that in place.

Can it happen today? Can it happen now? No, it`s going to take some work. It`s going to take some time. But when we do it, we`ll do it right. We will not do it in a way that will make the situation worse. That`s what we have to be careful of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: And then the same guy wrote a book about how President Obama is just being too darn careful about these things. Going too slow.

Since leaving the administration, Leon Panetta, I have to tell you, has a new job. He`s become senior council at something called Beacon Global Strategies. The managing director and co-founder of Beacon Global Strategies is a guy named Philippe Reines who has been part of Hillary Clinton`s political operation since her time in the United States Senate and her time at the State Department.

[font size=3]Philippe Reines is widely expected to be the spokesman for the Hillary Clinton campaign once she officially starts running for president again. [/font]For now, he runs the firm that employs Leon Panetta. And Leon Panetta has just written a book making the patented Hillary Clinton anti-Barack Obama campaign charge that Barack Obama as president is weak on national security and he hasn`t been enthusiastic enough and fast enough when it comes to using force. Obviously, that means someone like Hillary Clinton who would be much more hawkish would therefore be a much better president.

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(emphasis added).

This explains a lot, I think. And you're right -- it IS sick!