Responding to reports that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former congressman and Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta as CIA director, Michael Savage asserted on the January 5 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show that “maybe [former Weather Underground member] Bill Ayers picked Leon Panetta,” later asking, “Is it Bill Ayers and his crowd in Chicago who said 'Pick Panetta. He's a man we can trust'?”

Earlier, responding to a caller's assertion that Panetta will be a “puppet” for Obama, Savage stated: “All right, so you're saying Panetta was appointed by Obama because he'll be a useful puppet. And then the CIA, instead of being an independent agency, will wind up being an arm of the executive branch. That's what worries me. That is Hitlerism.” Savage continued: “Shall I be very clear? When Hitler aggrandized all the power in Germany and all of the agencies reported to him and there was no independence, it was called a dictatorship. Panetta must not be confirmed as the director of the CIA.”

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, says that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches more than 8 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation, behind only The Rush Limbaugh Show and The Sean Hannity Show.

From the January 5 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation:

CALLER: Yes, Doctor Savage, a comment on the new appointee for the CIA. I believe that that's exactly what they want is someone who doesn't know what they're doing. I believe -- the word I can only think of now is “puppet” -- but I believe no matter what --

SAVAGE: All right, so you're saying Panetta was appointed by Obama because he'll be a useful puppet. And then the CIA, instead of being an independent agency, will wind up being an arm of the executive branch. That's what worries me. That is Hitlerism. Shall I be very clear? When Hitler aggrandized all the power in Germany and all of the agencies reported to him and there was no independence, it was called a dictatorship.

Panetta must not be confirmed as the director of the CIA. This is an outrage. Outrage. Biggest story -- biggest story of the year. Biggest story of the year, picking an unknown hack. An unknown hack. No intelligence experience to run the CIA in an age of terror. I've never seen anything like this. Even Dianne Feinstein was caught off guard. She don't believe it herself. She doesn't believe it herself.

CALLER: And that's what got me, is when someone like Feinstein herself is even surprised at it. That's what got me. I believe --

SAVAGE: Right. Now, if Feinstein, a certifiable, bona fide liberal, was not consulted -- and she's the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- who, then, picked Leon Panetta?

CALLER: [unintelligible] I believe Ayers, Farrakhan, and the whole rest of that gang is --

SAVAGE: Yeah, maybe Bill Ayers picked Leon Panetta. Maybe everything we feared about Obama can be seen in the head of a pin here.

CALLER: Absolutely, you know --

SAVAGE: Something is wrong. The CIA position is the most important selection of all, perhaps next to the secretary of state -- even more important. Because the CIA has access to secret data that I don't even think the State Department has. Why would they pick a hack like Panetta? A college teacher. Why?

CALLER: 'Cause --

SAVAGE: Because -- because Obama wants all information flowing only to him, and he wants a useful puppet in the CIA, and this man must not be confirmed.

You know, what's interesting and very important for the American people to know -- because thus far, they haven't heard this story because it just happened today -- is this: The man originally selected by Obama to be the head of the CIA was a good man with great experience. He was rejected by the left-wing blogosphere. Obama then goes and picks a man with no experience? Who is advising Obama on this? Who? Who? Is it the very left wing that we feared in the background? Is it Bill Ayers and his crowd in Chicago who said, “Pick Panetta. He's a man we can trust”? This is no good.

Thanks for the call.

Lauryn Bruck is an intern at Media Matters for America.