Today was Jeff Ballabon‘s first day as SVP of communications for CBS News, and he was greeted with a prominently featured column on the front page of HuffingtonPost.com concerning his Republican ties.

Ira Foreman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, writes, “This guy is very far out there with his partisan rhetoric.” He points to a few examples of Ballabon’s past comments, including a New York Daily News story in September 2008 about his answer, “Obama is incredibly dangerous,” to a question from an Orthodox Jewish paper, Hamodia. In fairness, the question was, “Is Obama as dangerous as some have claimed?”

Ballabon tells TVNewser: “I am very happy to be here at CBS News. I hope to make a very positive contribution for a long time to come. I will be a nonpartisan member of this team dedicated to communicating all the good news happening at CBS.”