THE BRIT REPORTERS ARE PULLING NO PUNCHES, AGAIN - AT 8:08 P.M. ET:  One of the most interesting media developments of 2009 was the extent to which British reporters took aim at the Obama administration, often beating their American counterparts to the heart of the story.  On New Year's Eve, London's Daily Mail continues the tradition, looking for a good place to put the chopping block in 2010:

Heads are set to roll in the U.S. intelligence community as an angry Barack Obama fends off criticism over the attempted bombing of a passenger plane on Christmas Day.

Publicly the White House is standing by the top spymaster in the U.S., intelligence chief Admiral Dennis Blair.

The four-star admiral, who is responsible for coordinating intelligence gathering between 16 agencies, has the full confidence of the president, aides are insisting.

It's remarkable that Blair has escaped scrutiny by the American press.  Earlier this year he was involved in a huge flap when he tried to name Charles Freeman, an Israel-hating, Chinese-government-loving "scholar" to a key intelligence post.  The move was blocked when Freeman's views came out.  However, the move raised serious questions about Blair's judgment.

But speculation was rife that Blair or Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano could be forced to resign after Mr Obama said on Tuesday there had been a systemic failure by the country's security agencies to prevent the botched Christmas Day attack.

Napolitano has been lambasted by Republican critics, and in the media, for initially saying the air security system worked. She quickly back-pedalled, claiming she had meant the system of beefing up measures worked after the incident had occurred.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Napolitano had the president's support, and Obama referred to her in his public comments on Tuesday, supporting her statement that correct actions were taken after the attempted attack.

COMMENT:  At the same time, it's being widely reported that a new bus pulled up to the White House last night, with plenty of room underneath.  The first White House bus had too many people thrown under it by Barack Obama, so a new one had to be ordered.

Both Blair and Napolitano, or either, could wind up looking up at bus axles.  The State Department was also involved in the huge security failure that led to the airliner bombing, but Ms. Hillary knows how to duck, which she's been doing since the incident.

December 31, 2009