Pelosi's compulsion
The speaker-elect should avoid embarrassment -- and honor her promise to clean up Congress -- and not pick compromised Alcee Hastings as intelligence chairman.
By Joe Conason

Nov. 24, 2006 | Whatever urge impels Nancy Pelosi to consider replacing Jane Harman with Alcee Hastings as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence must be extraordinarily powerful. Some say that Speaker-elect Pelosi harbors a personal grudge against her fellow Californian; some say that she feels Harman has been too accommodating to the White House and Republicans as the ranking Democrat on the committee, known as HPSCI (or "hip-see").

Yet neither of those motives seems sufficient to explain why Pelosi would choose to pass over Harman in favor of Hastings, whose elevation can only cause the most severe embarrassment to the speaker-elect and the Democrats she leads. It won't be easy for them to justify entrusting a position of such enormous sensitivity to someone whom Pelosi -- and many of her Democratic colleagues -- once voted to impeach and remove from the federal bench as a corrupt perjurer.

In 1988, the House approved 17 articles of impeachment against Hastings, who was then a federal district judge sitting in the Southern District of Florida. The congressional impeachment stemmed from his unsuccessful 1981 federal prosecution on charges that a lawyer named William Borders had solicited a $150,000 bribe on his behalf from Frank and Thomas Romano, two brothers convicted of racketeering whose sentencing came before Hastings. Borders, a longtime Hastings friend and a prominent African-American attorney, was found guilty and sent to prison.

Although a Miami jury acquitted Hastings of the bribery, despite much circumstantial evidence of his guilt, outraged judges in the 11th Circuit initiated disciplinary proceedings against him. They commissioned a special report on the Hastings case by former assistant attorney general John Doar, who found substantial evidence of his participation in the bribery scheme with Borders as well as reason to believe that he had subsequently lied under oath at his trial.

Hastings has always insisted that he was the innocent victim of a scheme by Borders to profit from the misuse of his name. When Borders was apprehended by an FBI undercover operation in Washington, however, Hastings abruptly fled town before the agents could question him. Over the past two decades, Borders has gone to jail twice on contempt charges rather than testify to the innocence of his friend Hastings.

The Doar report convinced members of the House Judiciary Committee -- then controlled by Democrats and chaired by John Conyers, D-Mich., who is now set to chair the committee again -- to begin the impeachment process. Their decision was historic because Hastings was the first African-American federal judge in Florida, and only the sixth judge ever to be impeached by Congress. The committee unanimously referred to the full House the 17 specific articles against him, which were then ratified on the House floor by a vote of 413-3. Conyers led the special committee of impeachment managers who prosecuted Hastings in the Senate, where they won his conviction and removal. Of the 17 counts, he was convicted on nine and acquitted on two, and the Senate didn't vote on six; each conviction required a two-thirds vote.

That stinging disgrace didn't prevent Hastings from running several years later for a congressional seat in Miami, which he has held ever since. Nobody seems to have noticed, until now, that he has been sitting on the Intelligence Committee long enough to become its second-ranking Democrat. Perhaps that's because his service on the committee has been neither noteworthy nor distinguished. The only reason to award him the chairmanship would be that he has been there a long time -- and that he isn't Harman.

As for Harman, she faces a significant handicap aside from the enmity of the new speaker and her alleged coziness with Republicans. She is reportedly the subject of a federal investigation concerning her relationship with the powerful lobbyists at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In a probe that grew out of the Larry Franklin espionage case, Harman is alleged to have promised to seek leniency for two AIPAC officials in exchange for the powerful lobby's support of her bid for the HPSCI chair. She vehemently denies that accusation.

No doubt Pelosi understands that she, the Congressional Black Caucus and the new Democratic Congress will hear mocking laughter from all sides if they turn HPSCI over to Hastings. They may mumble about the possibility that the FBI crime lab compromised the evidence against him, or claim that they now worry about the fairness of his impeachment trial. Weighed against their own votes to impeach and convict him, and against their promises to clean up the corrupt Congress, those claims will count for nothing. The chairmanship of a select committee is not an entitlement, and grave doubts about the integrity of Hastings should disqualify him.

Fortunately, the choice is not limited to Hastings or Harman. Among the possible alternatives is Rush Holt, D-N.J., a physicist and former State Department intelligence officer who is not only highly qualified to chair HPSCI but also has served on the committee with distinction. His honesty has never been questioned. For this job, above all others, Pelosi should honor her campaign promises and choose the best.


-- By Joe Conason

I second the motion for Holt.

There are other blacks if need be.

Pelosi rejects Hastings bid

By Thomas Ferraro
Reuters
Tuesday, November 28, 2006; 6:16 PM



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday rejected a bid by a lawmaker earlier ousted as a federal judge on corruption charges to head a congressional panel that helps protect America's security.

Pelosi, preparing her party to take control of the House from President George W. Bush's Republicans when the 110th U.S. Congress convenes on January 4, told Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat, of her decision during a closed-door meeting.

"I advised him that I would select someone else as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee," Pelosi said.

Aides said Pelosi has yet to pick anyone else for the job.

Pelosi added that Hastings, now the second ranking Democrat on the committee, "has served our country well and I have full confidence that he will continue to do so."

Last week, Hastings, elected without opposition this month to an eighth term in Congress, made a public plea for the chairmanship. He argued that despite being removed by Congress as a federal judge in 1989, he did nothing wrong and was cleared by a court of corruption charges.

In rejecting Hastings as chairman, Pelosi avoided what would have been another round of heavy criticism before she even takes the gavel as speaker.

The possibility of a Hastings chairmanship had drawn fire, particularly from conservative commentators. They noted Pelosi, in helping Democrats win control of Congress in the November 7 elections, vowed to clean up how the scandal-rocked House does business.

Earlier this month, House Democrats defied Pelosi and elected Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland as their majority leader over Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a leading opponent of the Iraq war who has had ethics problems of his own.

In 1981, Hastings, appointed to the federal bench in Florida by Democratic President Jimmy Carter, was accused of soliciting a $150,000 bribe in return for a light sentence for two men convicted of racketeering.

A jury cleared Hastings, but a panel of judges urged he be impeached by the House, which did so in 1988. A year later, the Senate convicted Hastings and removed him from the bench. In 1992, he was elected to Congress.

Hastings, in a statement, thanked those who supported him for the committee chairmanship, including fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Hastings also had a message for critics: "Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet."

"I will be seeking better and bigger opportunities in a Democratic Congress."

Among those seen as potential picks for the committee chairmanship by Pelosi are: Democratic Reps. Silvestre Reyes of Texas and Rush Holt of New Jersey, both members of the Intelligence Committee, and Norman Dicks of Washington state, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee.

As speaker, Pelosi will decide who in her party serves on the Intelligence Committee that helps oversee federal efforts to protect the United States.

Pelosi also picks the committee chair and there have been indications she will not select Rep. Jane Harman, a fellow Californian who now serves as the panel's top Democrat. They have had a strained relationship.

Pelosi chooses Reyes to run intel panel
Speaker passes over committee's senior Democrat Harman
The Associated Press
Updated: 9:16 a.m. PT Dec 1, 2006

WASHINGTON - House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi has chosen a Border Patrol agent-turned-congressman to lead the House Intelligence Committee, ending weeks of Democratic debate about who will oversee the nation's spy agencies.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, takes over the key post next year, as his party tries to intensify oversight of the intelligence community. Critics say Republicans failed to do that, leading to faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq and other stumbles.

"When tough questions are required - whether they relate to intelligence shortcomings before the 9/11 attacks or the war in Iraq, or to the quality of intelligence on Iran or North Korea - he does not hesitate to ask them," Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement announcing her choice of Reyes.


Pelosi's options
The selection of Reyes resolves one of the few committee chairmanships that was still in question after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives last month. It set up an early challenge for Pelosi, who had sole discretion on the selection.

The California Democrat had to navigate a series of candidates - and their supporters - who were vying for the post. In the end, Pelosi bypassed two more senior intelligence committee members - Reps. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Alcee Hastings, D-Fla. - to select Reyes.

Harman is currently the committee's top Democrat, and her term on the panel expires this year. She could have been reappointed by Pelosi, but the two are said to have political differences.

Harman, speaking to the American Bar Association Friday, said
Pelosi called her early Friday morning to give her the news that Reyes will take over the key post next year.

Hinting that she and Pelosi have had long-standing political differences, Harman she was "humbled" by the attention the choice of chairman of the Intelligence Committee has gained in blogs and editorials and even with her 22-year-old daughter, who told her, "Mom you are a tough cookie."

Harman also said that she has spoken to Reyes to offer her full support and said he brings, "great experience" to the position. Harman said that she would be "disappointed" to be leaving the committee - her leadership term expires this year.

Some critics and ethics watchdogs had questioned whether Hastings - who was impeached as a federal judge - was the right person for a post that has access to some of the nation's top secrets.

In a sign of the bitterness that has surrounded the issue, a Hastings statement this week announcing he would not get the job closed with: "Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet."

Reyes plans
Known as "Silver" to friends, Reyes was drafted into the Army and served during 1966-68 as a helicopter crew chief and gunner. His service included 13 months in Vietnam.

He rose through the ranks during 26 years of service in the Border Patrol, leaving as a senior law enforcement official in Texas in 1995. He won his seat in Congress the next year.

Under Democratic control, his committee is expected to increase public oversight of some of the most difficult issues facing the United States, including terrorism, Iraq and government surveillance. Given the committee's inherently secret nature, much of the work will have to be done behind closed doors.

In an interview last month, Reyes said he will insist on more information about the Bush administration's most classified programs and how they are working. The Republicans, he said, have made a habit of rubber-stamping those programs.

He also wants to look at the role of intelligence three years after the war in Iraq and the state of traditional spycraft, now referred to as "human intelligence."

"We haven't required or haven't had the administration give us the details, evaluation or plan of how these classic programs are functioning," said Reyes, who will be the first Hispanic chairman of the committee.

The National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil rights group that has been seeking more representation in leadership positions, was pleased Reyes got the job. "This is an important breakthrough for the Latino community," said the group's president, Janet Murguia.

Bipartisanism
Reyes is considered less partisan than Hastings, and signaled that the day after the election when he praised the selection of former CIA Director Robert Gates to replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

Reyes believes that the U.S. must increase its military strength to face the current threats in Iraq, that the Bush administration must forge better alliances, and that Iraqi militias must be disbanded. Nowhere in Congress are relations between Republicans and Democrats as publicly nasty as the House Intelligence Committee, which saw partisan spats in October over the public release of information about a corrupt GOP congressman and the leak of a high-level intelligence estimate on terrorism.

In the interview, Reyes said that relations among committee members "can't get worse. It has gotten as bad as it could."

Hoekstra said the committee's Republicans will work with Democrats. "The threats and challenges facing our great nation know no political bounds," he said in a statement congratulating Reyes.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.NBC's Joel Seidman contributed to this story.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15986722/

Which brings us to Rush Holt. He is a former Princeton University physicist and past intelligence analyst at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He specialized in nuclear matters. He knows much about the intelligence bureaucracy and about weapons proliferation and loose nukes, critical national security priorities. First elected in 1998, Holt has not been shy about confronting the administration and the intelligence agencies. He voted against granting George W. Bush the authority to invade Iraq. He has challenged the administration's policies on the detention and questioning of suspected terrorists, arguing the White House has not been mindful enough of civil liberties. He also was one of the few Democrats to charge on to the House floor to oppose the Republicans when they sought to intervene in the Terri Schiavo affair. The Courier News of Bridgewater, New Jersey, endorsed Holt's reelection this year and noted, "Holt offers the kind of intelligence, reasonable and decisive voice that has been all too lacking inside the Beltway during the partisan wars of recent years. But Holt's value in Congress goes beyond that; he has developed a reputation as a thinking man's congressman, a scientist by trade who provides more thoughtful analysis on issues than most lawmakers." Holt calls for beginning a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. He has warned the administration not to hype the intelligence on Iran's nuclear weapon program, noting the "intelligence on Iran is poor, contradictory, or both."