President-elect defends his choice of Panetta

President-elect Barack Obama said Tuesday he has selected a "top-notch intelligence team" that would provide "unvarnished" information his administration needs, rather than "what they think the president wants to hear."

But current and former intelligence officials expressed sharp resentment over Obama's choice of Leon Panetta as CIA director and suggestions that the agency suffers from both incompetent leadership and low morale.

On Capitol Hill, Senate intelligence committee Democrats were still stewing over Obama's failure to consult them on the choice before it was leaked Monday and continued to question Panetta's lack of intelligence experience. Vice President-elect Joe Biden acknowledged that the transition team had made a "mistake" in not consulting or even notifying congressional leaders, and Obama telephoned committee Chairwoman Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and her predecessor, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., Tuesday to apologize.

The Panetta uproar starts Obama off on the wrong foot with the committee and intelligence professionals and was the latest glitch in what has largely been an unusually smooth and carefully choreographed transition.

"It's always good to talk to the requisite members of Congress," Biden said. "I think it was just a mistake."

In a news conference at his transition headquarters, Obama defended Panetta, even as he emphasized he has still made no formal announcement about his intelligence team. "I have the utmost respect for Leon Panetta," he said. "I think he is one of the finest public servants that we've had. He brings extraordinary management skills, great political savvy, an impeccable record of integrity." Obama is expected to publicly name Panetta and retired Navy Adm. Dennis Blair as director of national intelligence later this week.

President-elect Barack Obama has approached CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, to be the country's next surgeon general, the cable network said Tuesday. Obama's transition office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The surgeon general has a tiny staff, must rely on other agencies for a budget and holds little power. The surgeon general typically isn't heavily involved in shaping an administration's policy, but it can be a very effective bully pulpit. Past surgeons general have proved instrumental in battling tobacco and AIDS.

Having such a well-known TV personality could bring the surgeon general attention not seen since C. Everett Koop held the position under President Ronald Reagan. Koop is best known for pushing to make AIDS a public health issue rather than a moral issue, and Reagan faced pressure to fire him. Koop has said Reagan never interfered.

Gupta, 39, grew up in Michigan and was educated at the University of Michigan. His jobs as journalist and physician have sometimes overlapped. During the 2003 Iraq invasion, he was embedded with a Navy unit called Devil Docs and, while covering its mission for CNN, performed brain surgery five times, the first of which was on a 2-year-old Iraqi boy. After the tsunami in South Asia in December 2004, he covered the health crisis in Sri Lanka. And in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, he spent days at Charity Hospital in New Orleans.