Leon Panetta Quotes


You've got to sit down with all of the special-interest groups on your side before you announce that decision and walk them through it. You need to determine if they're going to support it. - Leon Panetta



You're talking about a real problem facing this country at the very moment when we're expecting something like 70 to 80 million baby boomers to retire and to add additional costs to Social Security and Medicare. We're headed towards a fiscal cliff. - Leon Panetta



You really ought to think twice before you appoint a staff member to a position like Supreme Court justice. You have to ask whether that person really has the experience you need to be a justice. Usually, it will make more sense to go outside the White House. - Leon Panetta



You know, one thing I've learned over 40 years is that when you have jobs in Washington, you do it day by day and that's what I'm doing as secretary of defense. - Leon Panetta



You know, as director of the CIA, I got an awful lot of intelligence about all the horrible things that could go on across the world. - Leon Panetta



You have to have a good relationship with the president, but you also have to be a tough SOB to get things done. And that means not only being tough with the staff, but, occasionally, tough with the president. - Leon Panetta