By Khalida Sarwari
The wife of CIA Director Leon Panetta, whom President Obama nominated as defense secretary today, said this afternoon she thinks her husband’s people skills and military background make him the right person for the job.
“He knows Washington, and he has had so much experience as a leader,” Sylvia Panetta said. “He’s very wise. He understands people … and he likes to work with people.”
Sylvia Panetta said her husband has committed his career to public service, beginning in 1964 when he served for a few years as an Army intelligence officer.
“He was very proud to wear the uniform,” Panetta said. “He always thinks about our troops and their families. He often talks about them and he worries about them. He’ll worry even more now.”
The Panettas founded the Panetta Institute for Public Policy in 1997 at California State University, Monterey Bay.
Leon Panetta is a 72-year-old native of Monterey and a former professor at Santa Clara University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. He obtained his juris doctorate from Santa Clara University Law School.
Jim Cottrill, a political science professor at Santa Clara University, said Panetta is an ideal choice for defense secretary because of his experience in budgeting.
“There’s a lot of talk right now about how they want to cut waste and spending,” Cottrill said. “I think the president feels Panetta is in a position where he will make intelligent cuts that won’t hurt national security, but yet will still save money and make the defense department less expensive.”
Cottrill said one of Panetta’s strengths is his ability to streamline organizations, which he said Panetta demonstrated as President Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff from 1994 to 1997.
“He has a reputation for being very effective in terms of being an administrator,” Cottrill said. “Before he was Clinton’s chief of staff, the White House had a reputation of being disorganized. He imposed structure and made it more efficient.”
Panetta also served as Clinton’s director of the Office of Management and Budget until 1994 and prior to that, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.
Steve Weber, a political science professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said Panetta’s government experience makes him a “consummate Washington bureaucratic player.”
“It’s hard to imagine anybody else who would have been more effective,” Weber said. “He knows how to get stuff done, who to call, how to get things moving.”
Weber said Panetta has been successful as director of the CIA despite concerns when he was appointed in 2009 that he didn’t have enough intelligence experience to take over the post.
“He was very effective in a very, very hard situation,” he said. “He’s probably entering the exact situation managing the Pentagon.”
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Panetta will replace retiring Defense Secretary Robert Gates, also a former CIA director. Gen. David Petraeus will take over the helm at the CIA.