Andrew Sullivan wrote back in November:

The good news from last night’s 60 Minutes interview is that Obama has clearly committed himself to ending the torture policy of Bush and Cheney. But that clarity will sadly be in doubt if Marc is right and John Brennan becomes the next CIA Director:
Brennan’s long association George Tenet and with the CIA during the first few years of the Bush administration may give civil liberties advocates and Congressional Democrats some pause; it is not clear to what degree Brennan participated in or was read into many of the intelligence community’s controversial post 9/11 /Iraq programs, including extraordinary renditions and orders that sanctioned coercive interrogation techniques.

And then there’s this news out today. The Washington Post reports:

Barack Obama has picked John O. Brennan as his top adviser on counterterrorism, a role that will give the CIA veteran a powerful voice on the government’s use of security contractors and on other sensitive issues in which he recently has played a private-sector role.
By appointing Brennan to a senior White House position not subject to Senate approval, Obama is also making him an influential adviser on the Middle East and on Iran, a topic on which Brennan has called for a sharp break with past U.S. policy.
The president-elect’s decision comes only six weeks after Brennan was forced to pull out of contention for the directorship of the CIA because of fears that his statements supporting some controversial interrogation techniques would have complicated his confirmation.

If Bush had done this, I believe it would be described in the press as a “Rovian move.”