Chas Freeman, On Notice

Eli Lake dutifully serves up the first round of investigation and ominously notes:

"The director did not seek the White House's approval," [Dennis Blair's spokeswoman] Ms. Morigi said. "In addition to his formal background security investigation, we expect that the White House will undertake the typical vetting associated with senior administration assignments."

One suspects he's toast. Yglesias:

If Freeman goes down it won’t, unfortunately, be because a brave new era of good government and clean dealings has arisen; it’ll be a politically motivated neocon hit job. But as I say, if they have the goods they have the goods.

I sure hope some members of the foreign policy establishment in Obama's team have some realist sensibilities.