Sumo Merriment

Nancy Pelosi (the speaker-elect) must honor her promist to clean up Congress. If she doesn't do the right thing...if she misses this opportunity to prove she means what she says...she runs a great risk of embarrassing herself and her party by picking compromised Alcee Hastings as intelligence chairman. Pelosi wants to replace Jane Harman with Alcee Hastings as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. There are those that say that Pelosi has a personal grudge against Harmon...a fellow Californian. Some say that she feels Harman has been too accomodating to the White House and Republicans as the ranking Democrat on the committee, known as HPSCI.
Jane Harman & Alcee Hastings
But it doesn't explain why Pelosi would choose to pass over Jane Harman for Hastings, who has a rather checkered past. It is a position of great sensitivity and they would have to justify giving this position to Hastings after Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues once voted to impeach and remove Hastings 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.

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.

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.
Rush Holt is the right person for this position and we may have to find a way to contact our lady speaker-elect to get on the ball and do the honorable thing and marry the best man to this most important position. One can only hope they will be wise enough to think this through.

cross-posted @ Blanton's & Ashton's

Posted by sumo on Saturday, November 25, 2006 at 12:21 AM | Permalink Return to Top