Sailing is now suddenly smooth for Leon Panetta’s appointment to the CIA as critic Diane Feinstein, incoming chairwoman of the Senate intelligence committee, has just announced that the beef is squashed, AP reports. But why? She made a big stand off of the idea that an intelligence professional ought to be CIA director.

Feinstein says she spoke with Panetta, a fellow Californian, for about 20 minutes on Tuesday evening and came away confident he’d surround himself with good personnel at the agency.

Did Steve Kappes just save Panetta’s appointment? I’ve got a query out to Feinstein’s people.

Crossposted to The Streak.