Ann,
Winston Churchill described the work of British ministers of state (equivalent to our federal secretaries of departments) as “making certain the work gets done” rather than “doing it themselves”, in his World War One series titled, “The World Crisis”. He had served as the Britisih minister in charge of both its navy (First Lord of the Admiralty) and war production (Minister of Munitions).
That is basically the job of American department “secretaries”. As an example, Caspar Weinberger had been a California state legislator and then California director of fnance under Governor Ronald Reagan, then been appointed first deputy director, and then full director, of the federal office of Management and Budget during the Nixon administration. He had no military experience, other than as a junior officer in World War Two, but was highly successful as Secretary of Defense under the Reagan administration.
Donald Rumsfeld was White House of Chief of Staff during the Ford administration, and then became its Secretary of Defense, plus later Secretary of Defense in the second Bush adminstration. Richard Cheney was White House Chief of Staff during the Ford administration, and Secretary of Defense in the first Bush administration.
Leon Panetta served as White House Chief of Staff during the Clinton administration. I.e., Panetta is perfectly qualified to be Secretary of Defense. So why is he not qualified to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency?
Leon Panetta has shown himself to be a very capable high-level federal manager, plus a skilled and ruthless political operator. Mark Safrankski rightly called him a political heavyweight.
