CHANGES COMING – AT 7:53 A.M. ET:  A number of news organizations are reporting this:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Administration sources say President Barack Obama plans this week to name CIA Director Leon Panetta to replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Gen. David Petraeus, now running the war in Afghanistan, would take the CIA chief's job.

The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because the changes are not final.

The changes would probably take effect this summer. Gates has already said he will leave this year.

The officials say Obama is expected to also announce that Lt. Gen. John Allen would replace Petraeus as Afghanistan commander, and that diplomat Ryan Crocker will be the next U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan.

The changes are expected to be announced Thursday at the White House.

COMMENT:  Rumors about these changes have been circulating for weeks.  My first thought about Panetta taking over Defense is that, bottom line, Obama didn't appoint a screwball like former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel.  My fear, though, is that Panetta isn't being appointed to keep America strong, but to cut the defense budget still further.  He has a credible history as a budgetary expert, and we have a right to be worried that Obama, should he get a second term, will take the ax to the left wing's favorite target.

I also have mixed feelings about Petraeus taking over the CIA, which means taking him out of uniform.  As the nation's most renowned currently serving soldier, CIA would seem to be a steppingstone to nowhere.   But getting Petraeus out of the spotlight and into the inner circles of the administration probably removes him as a dark horse candidate for president in 2012.  Petraeus has denied any such ambition, of course, but Republicans did indeed dream.  The good news is that CIA will be in the hands of a patriot, and, once again, not some Hagelesque theoretician.

Of course, policy is made at the top.  If Obama stays, he could have George Washington at Defense and Lincoln at CIA, and it might not make that much of a difference.

April 27, 2011