Bleeding Heartland is a community blog about Iowa politics: campaigns and elections, state government, social and environmental issues. Bleeding Heartland also weighs in on presidential policies and campaigns, federal legislation and what the Iowans in Congress are up to. Join our community, post your thoughts as comments or diaries, help keep our leaders honest and hold them accountable.
Meanwhile, there is likely to be little debate over Obama's most appalling nominee yet: John Brennan to head the Central Intelligence Agency. I don't have much to add to concerns the American Civil Liberties Union and Glenn Greenwald raised yesterday. It's bad enough that the Obama administration is still doing renditions, spying on Americans without a warrant, and escalating its use of drone strikes that kill many civilians. The president is promoting his top terrorism adviser, who's deeply associated with those policies, and it's not even a controversial appointment. The Senate should have a real debate about this policy but won't. Greenwald noted, "the reason Obama needs a new CIA chief is because David Petraeus was forced to resign. Here we see the ethos and morality of imperial Washington: past support for torture and rendition does not disqualify one for a top national security position; only an extramarital affair can do that."
Any comments about Obama's cabinet appointments are welcome in this thread. UPDATE: Senator Chuck Grassley commented on Hagel's nomination today but did not say whether he plans to vote for or against confirming him.
![[Bleeding Heartland Logo]](http://www.bleedingheartland.com/upload/logo.jpg){kind=logo}
