"Liberal Blogs" Oust Brennan

Following the outcry across the human rights community and liberal blogosphere, John Brennan has withdrawn his name from Obama's CIA Director short-list. As the NYTimes reports:

In a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, Mr. Brennan said he did not want these concerns to be a “distraction” for the incoming administration...

The letter came as a surprise to many intelligence experts and even some lawmakers, and some questioned whether Mr. Brennan had been forced to withdraw his name by senior members of Mr. Obama’s transition team who were concerned about Mr. Brennan’s association with Bush administration policies. One official with the Obama transition team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision was entirely Mr. Brennan’s.

The opposition to Mr. Brennan had been largely confined to liberal blogs, and there was not an expectation he would face a particularly difficult confirmation process. Still, the episode shows that the C.I.A.’s secret detention program remains a particularly incendiary issue for the Democratic base, making it difficult for Mr. Obama to select someone for a top intelligence post who has played any role in the agency’s campaign against Al Qaeda since the Sept. 11 attacks.

While its easy to overstate the people-power element of the blogosphere-- the Brennan episode does show that dissent-- despite being "confined" to "liberal blogs"-- can effect real change.