Prior to announcing his appointments to the EPA and Department of Energy yesterday, Barack Obama held a meeting with his national security team. CBS News reported:
The meeting will include Mr. Obama, Vice President-elect Biden, White House Chief of Staff-designee Rahm Emanuel, Secretary of State designee Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Attorney General designee Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security designee Janet Napolitano, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, Ambassador to the United Nations designee Susan Rice, National Security Advisor designee Jim Jones, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and White House Counsel designee Greg Craig. A transition official provided CBS News with some background on the meeting: "There is one president at a time and this meeting is part of the work being done during the transition to be ready to hit the ground running on January 20." "This is not the first national security meeting. President-elect Obama previously held a meeting with key members of his team on Monday, December 1st, the day he announced key nominees. That meeting included the Vice President-elect, Clinton, Gates, Holder, Napolitano, Rice, Jones. Focus of that meeting was Mumbai." "There will be more meetings like this between now and January 20."
By all accounts, Obama has presided over a quick and smooth transition, but it's interesting that he hasn't found a director of national intelligence or CIA director. Last week, Marc Ambinder explained why that is:
Sources say that Obama's team is having trouble finding a potential CIA director who lacks politically incriminating links to controversial Bush Administration policies and yet commands the respect of the agency's rank and file.
For all of Obama's talk on the campaign trail about having better intelligence, you'd think he would have picked new DNI and CIA chiefs before he made appointments to the EPA and HUD. Does this say something about Obama's priorities? Hopefully the next intelligence chiefs won't have to rely on Joe Biden's notes for too many more national security meetings.