[Sosfbay-discuss] Leon Panetta

[Wes Rolley]

he blog site calitics.com had a recent thread on DiFi's (That is Di 
"Moron" Fi to you, Drew) problems with the Panetta appointment.  
Apparently DiFi was miffed because Obama did not get the Queens blessing 
before anyone talked publicly.

This entire episode triggered a friend of mine to send me a copy of a 
2002 OpEd from the San Francisco Chronicle written by Pete McCloskey.  
It details the last days of a Republican Leo Panetta.  The following was 
the comment I posted at Calitics.

*Leon Panetta - A man with a conscience. *
One of my personal political hero's has always been Pete McCloskey.  I 
admired him for his integrity.  I guess, after reading a 2002 McCloskey 
OpEd in the Chronicle, I will have to Panetta up on the same pedestal.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/12/19/ED66198.DTL

   In the spring, when Finch and Veneman were traveling outside of
   Washington, [Lew] Butler served briefly as acting Secretary of HEW.
   A call came from the White House. It was Bob Mardian, later to be
   indicted for his role in the Watergate coverup. He didn't mince
   words: Leon Panetta, who was then director of HEW's Office of Civil
   Rights, had to be fired. His offense, Mardian explained, was for
   enforcing the Civil Rights Act. "Doesn't he understand Nixon
   promised the Southern delegates he would stop enforcing the Civil
   Rights and Voting Rights Acts?"

   Upon their return to Washington, Finch and Veneman threatened to
   resign if forced to fire Panetta. Nixon, never one to relish
   confrontation, called off the dogs for the time being.

   Several weeks later, however, Panetta, seeing the handwriting on the
   wall, resigned, returned to California, switched to the Democratic
   Party and ran for Congress, unseating a long-term Monterey
   Republican, Burt Talcott.

PS.  The Lew Butler mentioned above was also once a law partner of 
McCloskey and, behind the scenes, a real player in the  2006 defeat of 
Richard Pombo and election of Jerry McNerney (CA-11)

Once in a while you do find politicians with principle

-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024