Nothing Screams ‘National Security Character Witness’ Like a Sandy Berger Endorsement

Hey, guess who thinks Leon Panetta will be just perfect at CIA?

Samuel R. “Sandy” Berger, Lake’s deputy before becoming national security adviser himself, said that Panetta “was part of the decision-making process for every single issue we were dealing with, whether this was in the Oval Office with the president or the Cabinet Room — the Middle East, Kosovo, China. He was a part of a small group of people who advised the president how to proceed on strategy and substance.”

Yes, that Sandy Berger.

Former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was sentenced Thursday to community service and probation and fined $50,000 for illegally removing highly classified documents from the National Archives and intentionally destroying some of them.

Berger must perform 100 hours of community service and pay the fine as well as $6,905 for the administrative costs of his two-year probation, a district court judge ruled.

Well, I feel better about Panetta, don’t you?