I published this Panetta piece last night just before 8, ran to band practice and then to Yglesias’ to watch the Longhorns beat Ohio State in an interminable Fiesta Bowl. Collapsed after that. So that’s why you’re only seeing this piece now, and that’s a real shame, since I designed it precisely for web2.5, wherein a reported analysis can add value if created and published a few hours after the newsbreak but not the day after. Alas.

Still, I liked this point about the Denny Blair/Leon Panetta relationship, from a very knowledgeable and very senior ex-CIA official:

As a result, the leadership of the intelligence community at a time of war will be a relatively inexperienced one. While Blair served as the CIA’s first-ever liaison to the military before retiring from the Navy in 2002, “Denny’s experience is not that deep,” said the retired senior official — something that might indicate that Panetta will be at least as influential to Obama as Blair. “He had a stint out at Langley ten years ago, he’s not an intel expert,” the retired official continued. “Matching Denny’s political clout against Panetta, I’d be more inclined to pick Panetta, not vice versa.”

 There’s more like that in the piece, but I wonder if it really has value at 8:50 a.m. the day after the Panetta pick broke.