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DISTRICT & MARYLAND

Wednesday, January 7, 2009


Obama Is Under Fire Over Panetta Selection
Current, Ex-CIA Officials Criticize ‘Opaque’ Process
By Karen DeYoung and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers

BY MELINA MARA — THE WASHINGTON POST

Roland Burris, center, the Democrat appointed to replace Barack Obama in the Senate,
waits in the rain for a car to rescue him from a throng of reporters after a news
conference.

Senators Turn Burris Away at Capitol
But Democrats Are Now Considering Allowing Blagojevich Appointee to Serve
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer

Blocked from claiming a Senate seat, a man who once said his success in politics
was the result of “divine intervention” stood outside the Capitol yesterday and
declared: “Members of the media, my name is Roland Burris, the junior senator from
the state of Illinois.” The 71-year-old former state attorney general had pressed
his case over the objections of Senate Democrats and the man he would replace, President-elect
Barack Obama, but instead found himself holding a news conference on the lawn outside
the Capitol just minutes

before new senators were sworn in. The man who has already had his own mausoleum
constructed in Illinois showed no signs of backing down. “He thinks he’s got
a shot, and he’s an ambitious guy with a large ego,” said Don Rose, a political
consultant in Chicago who has known Burris since the 1960s. “I’m not sure that
separates him from anybody in the Senate. . . . He’s paid a lot of dues, and he
may feel he’s paid his dues.” Burris’s single-minded push may yet succeed.
Senate Democrats, once sharply opposed to allowing Burris to be seated because he
was appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), are now considering
al-

lowing him to serve as a way to end a confrontation that could drag on for weeks
and distract from what they hope will be an end to a decade of gridlock on Capitol
Hill. One idea being considered, Democratic officials said, is allowing Burris to
be seated if he agrees not to run for election in 2010, allowing the party to recruit
another candidate to defend the seat (Burris has lost multiple statewide races in
Illinois). Sen. Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Richard
J. Durbin (D-Ill.) plan to meet with Burris today on Capitol Hill, and the two leaders

President-elect Barack Obama said yesterday that he has selected a “top-notch intelligence
team” that would provide the “unvarnished” information his administration needs,
rather than “what they think the president wants to hear.” But current and former
intelligence officials expressed sharp resentment over Obama’s choice of Leon E.
Panetta as CIA director and suggested that the agency suffers from incompetent leadership
and low morale. “People who suggest morale is low don’t have a clue about what’s
going on now,” said CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield, citing recent personnel reforms
under Director Michael V. Hayden. On Capitol Hill, Democrats on the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence were still stewing over Obama not consulting them on the
choice before it was leaked Monday and continued to question Panetta’s intelligence
experience. Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. acknowledged that the transition
team had made a “mistake” in not consulting or even notifying congressional leaders,
and Obama telephoned committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (DCalif.) and her predecessor,
Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), yesterday to apologize. “Obama trusts [Panetta]
— that’s a huge plus,” committee member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said, citing Panetta’s
management expertise as Clinton White House chief of staff and budget director. But
“after the

See CIA, Page A6

See BURRIS, Page A3

Obama Predicts Years of Deficits Over $1 Trillion
President-Elect Says Budget Reform Is ‘Absolute Necessity’
By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer

TV’s Gupta Chosen for Medical Post
Pick for Surgeon General Brings Communication Skill
By Ceci Connolly and Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writers

Slowing tax revenues and a historic bailout of the U.S. financial system will send
the budget deficit soaring toward $1 trillion this year, President-elect Barack Obama
said yesterday, and the red ink stands to get substantially deeper if Obama wins
approval of a massive economic stimulus plan. Even if the package of spending and
tax cuts helps restore the nation’s immediate economic health, Obama said, the
government is likely to be left with “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come”
unless policymakers “make a change in the way that Washington does business.”
“We’re going to have to stop talking about budget reform. We’re going to have
to totally embrace it. It’s an absolute necessity,” the president-elect told
reporters a day before the Congressional Budget Office is set to release its outlook
for the coming year. Obama faces the twin challenges of managing the deficit, the
annual gap between tax revenues and spending, and the swelling national debt, the
amount of money that the government has borrowed to finance years of deficits. His
task is made all the more difficult because new spending is widely viewed as the
best way to pull the nation out of the recession. While Obama has declined to say
how he intends to deal with such challenges, an economic adviser said yesterday that
the president-elect plans to unveil “major initia-

REUTERS

A wounded Palestinian is carried along a road near the U.N.-run al-Fakhora School
in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel Hits U.N.-Run School in Gaza
40 Die at Shelter That Military Says Hamas Was Firing From
By Griff Witte and Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service

See BUDGET, Page A4

JERUSALEM, Jan. 6 — Israeli soldiers battling Hamas gunmen in the Gaza Strip on
Tuesday fired mortar shells at a U.N.-run school where Palestinians had sought refuge
from the fighting, killing at least 40 people, many of them civilians, Palestinian
medical officials said. The Israeli military said its soldiers fired in selfdefense
after Hamas fighters launched mortar shells from the school. The United Nations condemned
the attack and called for an independent investigation. “We are completely devastated.
There is nowhere safe in Gaza,” said John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works
Agency in the Gaza Strip.

The incident — one of the single most deadly during Israel’s 11-day offensive
— underscored the dangers Palestinian civilians face as thousands of Israeli soldiers
fight their way across Gaza against an enemy that does not wear uniforms or operate
from bases, but instead mingles with the population. In all, at least 85 Palestinians
died in attacks across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, said Mowaiya Hassanien, a senior
Gaza hospital official. He said the Palestinian death toll since the start of Israel’s
massive military campaign stood at 625, with more than 2,900 injured. The United
Nations says 30 percent of those killed have been women and children. Tuesday’s
attack on the school came only hours af-

America’s most famous television surgeon, Sanjay Gupta, is poised to take his black
bag and microphone to the White House as President-elect Barack Obama’s choice
for U.S. surgeon general. A neurosurgeon who is also a correspondent for CNN and
CBS, Gupta was chosen as much for his broadcasting skills as for his medical résumé,
suggesting that the incoming administration values visible advisers who can drive
a public message. He has also been offered a top post in the new White House Office
of Health Reform, twin duties that could make him the most influential surgeon general
in his- Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon, is tory. A practicing physician and a correspondent
one of People magazine’s “Sexi- on CNN and CBS. est Men Alive,” Gupta met for
more than two hours with Obama in Chicago on Nov. 25, according to two sources with
knowledge of the talks. Gupta, 39, later spoke with several Obama advisers, including
Thomas A. Daschle, who will run the new White House policy office and the Department
of Health and Human Services. The globetrotting doctor has told Obama aides he wants
the job, which involves overseeing the 6,000member Commissioned Corps of the U.S.
Public Health Service. When reached yesterday, Gupta did not deny that he plans to
accept the offer but declined to comment.

See GAZA, Page A12

See GUPTA, Page A6

Boy, 6, Misses Bus, Takes Mom’s Car Instead
10-Mile Trip to Va. School Ends With Crash but Without Injury
By Tom Jackman
Washington Post Staff Writer

INSIDE
THE NATION THE WORLD

9/11 Trials Could be Secret
A judge at Guantanamo Bay considers making any statements by the five detainees A2
classified information.

Gas Embargo Chills Europe
Russia’s price dispute with Ukraine disrupts natural gas flow to 19 other countries.
A8
THE REGION

The word “miracle” can be overused. But when a 6-year-old boy drives a Ford Taurus
for more than 10 miles, weaving in and out of oncoming traffic, slams into a utility
pole and no one gets hurt, well, maybe miracle is appropriate. That’s what happened
on Virginia’s Northern Neck on Monday morning, when the first-grader missed his
school bus and decided to

drive his mom’s car to elementary school so he wouldn’t miss breakfast and PE,
authorities said yesterday. “It’s a miracle that somebody didn’t get killed,”
said Northumberland County Sheriff Chuck Wilkins of the boy’s drive along Northumberland
Highway. “We’re a rural area, but if we do have a rush hour, that’s it.”
The boy’s parents were arrested and charged with felony child endangerment. Wilkins
said the father, David E. Dodson, 40, was under a

court order not to leave the 6-yearold and his 4-year-old brother alone with their
mother, Jacqulyn D. Waltman, 26, at their home in the town of Wicomico Church. But
Dodson left for work at 6:30 a.m., and Waltman was still asleep when the 6-year-old
missed the bus and then drove off at 7:40 a.m. for Northumberland Elementary School,
Wilkins said. Sgt. Thomas A. Cunningham Jr. of the Virginia State Police said the
BY TONI L. SANDYS — THE WASHINGTON POST


SPORTS

Montgomery Crime Rises
The 7.7 percent increase, mostly in burglaries, is blamed on the economy.
FOOD

Capitals Win in Shootout
Victor Kozlov (25) scores the winning goal against the rival E1 Flyers for a 2-1
victory. Suitland coach remembered: 3,000 mourners attend the E1 funeral of Nick
Lynch.

Nourish Yourself
A new weekly column shares F recipes for lighter eating.

See BOY, Page A12
Online: Lotteries...............B4 Movies .................C5 Obituaries ........B5-7
Stocks ..............D4-6 Television.............C6 The World ............A8 TV Sports
.............E2 Weather ...............B8
DAILY CODE

INSIDE » METRO • STYLE • BUSINESS • SPORTS • FOOD
Classifieds ...........G1 Comics...........C9-11 Corrections..........A2 Editorials
...........A14 KidsPost ............C12 Letters ...............A14

PAGE B5


Contents  2009 The Washington Post