Leon Panetta, Bill Clinton’s former Chief of Staff, has been selected by President elect Barack Obama to be the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta has no intelligence experience to speak of, and the Obama transition team apparently neglected to notify the new Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, of the appointment. From the Washington Post:

Panetta, a nine-term California congressman and accomplished deal-maker, will replace Michael V. Hayden as director of the 51-year-old agency and its global network of about 20,000 employees, the sources said. The choice of a longtime Washington veteran with little previous intelligence experience came as a surprise even to some Obama insiders, and Sen. Dianne Fienstein (D-Calif.) said her office had not been informed in advance of the selection.

“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,” said Feinstein, who is the incoming chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee that will oversee the CIA director’s confirmation. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”

Obama will formally name Admiral Dennis Blair as the Director of National Intelligence, an appointment that had been widely reported but delayed while the CIA post was still open. Panetta, after all the ruffled feathers are put back in place, should win confirmation relatively easily. It appears that President elect Obama intends this appointment to be a clean break from the Bush years.