FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog

Both Senators Feinstein and Rockefeller were nonplussed and may oppose Panetta’s confirmation.

• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who this week begins her tenure as the first female chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said today that she was not consulted on the choice and indicated she might oppose it.
• “I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director,” Feinstein said. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”

• A senior aide to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), outgoing chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the senator “would have concerns” about a Panetta nomination.
• Rockefeller “thinks very highly of Panetta,” the aide said. “But he’s puzzled by the selection. He has concerns because he has always believed that the director of CIA needs to be someone with significant operational intelligence experience, and someone outside the political realm.”

Panetta would report to the Director of National Intelligence, Retired Admiral Dennis Blair who is also an Obama nominee and also faces confirmation by the Senate.

In the meantime, if the President-elect does NOT afford senior California Senator Dianne Feinstein the respect that she feels she is earned, Di Fi may very well return the favor by leaving the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairmanship to run for California Governor in 2010. Her term in the Senate expires in 2012.

Look for increasing crticism of this Obama nomination and its eventual withdrawal. The wrong man for the wrong job here.

Let’s look at a fairly recent poll:

Meg Whitman will have the support of California conservatives, Proposition 8 (pro-traditional marriage) supporters and will be able to self-fund a formidable advertising campaign.

Stay tuned………

Update:

The Poitico had another piece later in the day outlining an uphill battle for Whitman.

“The good news for Meg Whitman is that she’s a billionaire and can finance a lavish campaign. The bad news is that her main rival, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, is also a billionaire and can match her dollar for dollar,” said John J. Pitney Jr., a political science professor at California’s Claremont McKenna College.

Despite her national profile, Whitman still faces an uphill climb in terms of voter identification. A November statewide survey of 527 registered voters conducted by the Field Poll showed that 67 percent had no opinion of the former eBay CEO while 17 percent held a favorable view and 16 percent viewed her negatively.

Flap thinks Whitman has “the outsider” working for her, especially since California voters are “pissed off” with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrat dominated California Legislature.

A fresh face is perhaps what the voters want, especially if she is to face retread California Governor Jerry Brown.

Firing the first shot in Washington in the fight over the appointment of Roland Burris to the U.S. Senate, Gov. Blagojevich’s acting chief of staff hand-delivered Burris’ nomination certificate to the Capitol this morning — only to see it rejected by the secretary of the Senate.

Chief of staff Clayton Harris delivered the certificate around 8 a.m., eastern standard time, said Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero.

The secretary of the senate and two assistants acknowledged receipt of the document “but did not formally accept it” because it did not bear Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White’s signature, Guerrero said.

White refused to sign the certificate last week, joining the chorus of politicians who say Blagojevich is not fit to fill the vacant seat because of his Dec. 9 arrest on corruption charges. The governor and Burris are hoping the Illinois Supreme Court will force White to sign the document.

Stay tuned as this drama plays out and Burris makes his way to Washington D.C.

It’s all but official: A professional Democrat clown will join all the amateur ones already in the Senate.

Al Franken is going to Washington:

Democrat Al Franken will be declared the winner of the tight U.S. Senate contest in Minnesota, emerging from a ballot recount with a slim margin over Republican Norm Coleman, state officials said on Sunday.

But Coleman, the incumbent, has asked Minnesota’s supreme court to require that a few hundred additional absentee ballots be included in the recount — and he could then ask the court to investigate the contest all over again.

“At the moment, Franken has a 225-vote lead,” after the weekend counting of what were deemed the last uncounted absentee ballots, said Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat who oversaw the process.

Ritchie said unless the supreme court acts on Coleman’s request and orders more ballots to be counted, he will reconvene the state’s Canvassing Board on Monday to certify Franken as the winner of the November 4 contest.

Remember the voters in Minnesota elected Jesse “The Body” Ventura to a disastrous term as their Governor.

Minnesota deserve who they vote for - what a joke!

The number of Americans who consider themselves to be Democrats inched up again in December to 41.6%. That’s up two-tenths of a point since November and the third straight monthly increase in the number of Democrats.

Only once since Rasmussen Reports began tracking this data on a monthly basis in 2002 has the number of Democrats been higher. In May, as the Obama-Clinton primary battle neared its conclusion, 41.7% of Americans said they were Democrats.

At the same time, the number of Republicans declined a full percentage point from 33.8% in November to 32.8% in December. That’s the lowest number of Republicans since August. The number claiming allegiance to the GOP peaked in September at 34.4% as the party enjoyed a convention bounce and Sarah Palin was picked as the party’s Vice Presidential nominee.

The number not affiliated with either major party inched up from 24.7% in November to 25.6% in December.

These figures are not a shock but will be food for thought for the next Repuiblican National Chairman. How ill the party increase its numbers without alienating its conservative base, driving them to the not affiliated column.

During the Goldwater/Reagan era there was a coherent message. This will be the challenge for a revived GOP post Bush - message and its deliverance within a changing demographic landscape.

Stay tuned……