"Oh, You Mean Leon Panetta ... "

"I think Leon Panetta is a terrific choice ... He's just a terrific guy. He's got a good sense of humor, and he's got a really good sense of the American people and what they want." -- Clinton adviser Paul Begala, commenting on Leon Panetta's appointment as White House chief of staff

"Begala felt as if he were from a different country than some of the senior Clinton officials ... The worst of them, Begala felt, was Leon Panetta, the former congressman from Carmel Valley. Begala felt that of all 435 congressional districts, Panetta's was least representative of America -- the pure, elitist, unreal world of California dreaming. Panetta seemed to love talking about nothing more than deficit reduction ... In private, ((Begala)) began applying a new label to the budget director: 'The Poster Boy for ) Economic Constipation."' -- from Bob Woodward's The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House