Very interesting story today from Eli Lake drilling down on the question of how involved torture absolutist Leon Panetta may have been with Clinton-era rendition policies, which generally get very little attention but led to some nasty fates for the people snatched up. It's an enthralling question on national-security morality. But until liberals start getting outraged--something I highly doubt
we'll see--I don't see this presenting any real problem for Panetta. In practical political terms, this really amounts to conservatives trying to score debating points in the grand argument over rendition and torture ("Even Clinton did it!," etc.).
I'll have more on Panetta and the debate over his qualifications as CIA director in my piece for the upcoming issue of TNR.
--Michael Crowley