Obama to nominate Pentagon insider John Clapper as intel chief

[Bluebear]

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama intends to nominate the Pentagon's top intelligence official, James Clapper, as the next national intelligence director despite some objections from Capitol Hill , a senior administration official said Friday.

Obama will announce his nomination of Clapper, a retired Air Force general, in a Rose Garden ceremony Saturday morning, said the official, who would speak only on condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement.

Clapper would replace retired Adm. Dennis Blair, who resigned last month after frequent clashes with the White House...

In an interview with Declassified last week, the House Intelligence Committee’s senior Republican, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, said Clapper is a bad choice for the top intelligence job. Subsequently, the two leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democratic chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein and GOP vice chair Sen. Kit Bond, both publicly voiced opposition to Clapper’s possible nomination, with Bond suggesting cryptically that the general had tried to block his committee’s “efforts to give more authority to the DNI.” Any nominee for the job must be confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee before going before the full Senate for a final vote....

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., applauded the choice. Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he looked forward "to working with him to determine whether the DNI needs additional authorities in order to lead and integrate the intelligence community."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100604/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_intelligence_director
http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/2010/06/03/clapper-is-still-the-white-house-favorite-for-intelligence-czar.html

[Yeahyeah]

1. He can turn national intelligence on or off without getting out of bed.

Great choice!