James Clapper Tapped as Director of National Intelligence

img class="size-full wp-image-31151 alignleft" title="James Clapper" src="/files/wxrimport/2010-06/james-clapper.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="105" /><James Clapper will take the DNI position that Dennis Blair recently resigned from:

CBS News has confirmed that the White House plans to nominate James Clapper to be the new Director of National Intelligence, replacing Dennis Blair, who resigned effective May 28th.

A Rose Garden announcement is expected tomorrow.

Clapper, the Pentagon's intelligence chief, would, if confirmed, step into a job coordinating the nation's intelligence agencies that many see as nearly impossible.

While the National Intelligence Director ostensibly oversees the nation's intelligence agencies and helps them work together, Blair often lost out to CIA chief Leon Panetta and homeland security adviser John Brennan in turf battles, with the White House siding with Blair's rivals.

"It is the worst kind of job - all responsibility and no authority," said CBS News Pentagon Correspondent David Martin. "He is the intelligence officer responsible for briefing the president each morning on intelligence matters, and answers to him when things go wrong - as Blair did in the Christmas day bombing. But he does not have the power to hire and fire personnel at any of the 16 intelligence agencies he supposedly oversees, does not have control over their budgets, does not have the authority to approve or disapprove covert actions before they are undertaken by the CIA."

Click here to read more.