CIA Nominee Leon Panetta Opened His Mouth, Raked in $700,000

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Leon Panetta, Barack Obama's choice for CIA director, made buckets of cash last year. And he did it in the most bizarre way…

The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies, according to financial disclosures released Wednesday.

That's right, he gave speeches and held vague "consulting" positions that involved contact with major financial insitutions, private equity firms and other organizations, some of which have ties to major defense contractors and/or lobbying groups!

These types of connections are highly unusual in Washington, so the Senate Intelligence Committee will have plenty to chew on when they interrogate Panetta later this morning.

Which is just as well, since the questions about his actual intelligence experience will only take five minutes, tops.