Obama picks centrist Calif. representative for CIA

But it's not Jane Harman.

According to the New York Times, Obama has chosen Leon Panetta, a former California congressman and chief of staff to President Clinton, as his CIA director.

Thus ends speculation that Harman, D-El Segundo, would take the helm of the intelligence agency. The NYT reports that transition officials considered Harman, but...

... she was ruled out as a candidate in part because of her early support for some Bush administration programs like the domestic eavesdropping program.

Such considerations also doomed Obama's first choice, John Brennan, a deputy under Director George Tenet and the former head of the National Counterterrorism Center.

Harman recently received the Jefferson-Lincoln Award from the Panetta Institute, so presumably she will have some access to the new regime.