Hastings won’t head House intelligence panel.
By on Nov 28th, 2006 at 2:21 pm
Hastings won’t head House intelligence panel.
CQ reports, “House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi was to meet with Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL) late Tuesday to close the door on his bid to become chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, a congressional aide said. But Pelosi, D-Calif., has not yet decided who will get the job, according to the aide.”
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Good call on her part.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:26 pmDamn.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:26 pmNow Sean Insanity won’t have anything to bitch about.
Oh well, I’m sure he’ll come up with something.
A good move. And, it deprives Mighty A-hole of one of her most cherished strawman arguments.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:41 pmZooey, and all the others out there waiting to hear this. I humbly admit that this was a very good decision by Pelosi and will hopefully go a long way toward real integrity in the Democrat controlled house.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:42 pmI don’t really care whether or not Hastings heads the Intelligence Committee, but I want to know if all this opposition is strictly because he was impeached and removed from a judgeship years ago? Because that alone is not a good reason to deny him the chairmanship. He was elected to the House several times since by an electorate who knew all about the impeachment. If it didn’t matter to them, then it shouldn’t matter to any of us. Or is there some other reason people oppose him being chairman? I’m not up on my Hastings trivia.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:47 pmWe need a bulldog to get to the bottom of this intelligence thing.
November 28th, 2006 at 2:54 pmWe need good Congressional oversight to spy on the Pentagon. Maybe a mole for the chair.
What’s the difference between the two, I don’t know much about them?
Is Nancy’s pick like another Jack Murtha that’s who we all want but is never going to win the nomination?
And #2, Sean will never stop finding/making things to nag the Democrats with.
“The Democrats killed the PATRIOT Act!” – Sean Hannity’s favorite attack line, lately
We wish they did, Sean…
November 28th, 2006 at 2:57 pm#5
It matters to me. If Hastings was impeached as judge and thrown from the bench, it speaks volumes about his character. What was the cause of impeachment?
The house intelligence committe is too important to trust to someone who may chose to fix intelligence to fit an agenda ala Cheney-Bush
I think Nancy shows that she is a capable leader. Yes there is payback in politics for favors but she is exercising judgment as well. That is one of the qualities of a leader.
November 28th, 2006 at 3:02 pmOff Topic:
Who gives a rat’s ass what Insanity, Limpballs and O’Falafel say. They no longer matter other than for a good laugh.
November 28th, 2006 at 3:04 pmHarman apparently knows a lot about intelligence, but is a warhawk and has flip flopped like a lot of the other neo-liberal warhawks like Hilary Clinton by criticizing the occupation and NSA spying.
Hastings has been a adamant opponent to the war and has accused the Bush Administration of fabricating evidence to lead us to war and breaking federal law with the NSA spying.
They’re both strong supporters of Israel, but Harman has more of a “comfy” relationship with AIPAC, which is bad news because Israel loves the idea that we’re in Iraq for “security” reasons.
You know, securing the entire Middle East into an Israeli/US Empire!
November 28th, 2006 at 3:06 pm#11 Simon,
Thanks for the info. I did not know about the “lady friend” on his payroll. I never like to see any politician do that for one and only one simple reason: It creates the appearance of a conflict of interest. And as most of us here know (but many in Congress apparently do not), is that members of Congress must avoid both actual conflicts of interest and the appearance of one.
I accept your explanation and reasoning about this. If there was something the Republicans could legitimately raise as a reason for denying him the spot, then I can understand that. I knew about the impeachment (though I do not know what it was for, either, and that matters; we know that impeachments have been misused before), but I did not know about the payroll issue.
Okay, start looking for another qualified candidate besides Hastings and Harmon.
November 28th, 2006 at 3:18 pmGood call by Pelosi.
By the way, off-topic, I would like to thank ThinkProgress for their prompt response to the November 22, 2006 name-jacking which was falsely attributed to me by a regular poster here. The name-jacked false posting was promptly removed by ThinkProgress. I thank ThinkProgress for their quick action in removing the name-jacked posting from the site. We can only hope that the individual who has now dishonestly re-posted the name-jacked statements three times over the past several weeks will now cease and desist.
Again, thank you TP for your prompt response. I enjoy the spirited discussions on ThinkProgress and look forward to many more such debates, now knowing that name-jackings and false attributions of postings will no longer be tolerated.
November 28th, 2006 at 3:19 pmThe Republicans would have loved to have had Alcee Hastings named as chair of the IC, they were just waiting to pounce. It looks like Pelosi dodged a bullet on this one.
Comment by Simon
November 28th, 2006 at 3:41 pmI guess they won’t be happy with Harman.
Pelosi knows her politicking. She’ll give Hastings some other plums, disarm the Rebugligans and probably have a known bulldog of a representative in that very important post.
November 28th, 2006 at 4:16 pmI wouldn’t give Pelosi credit for making a good decision. She merely avoided making a terrible decision. Pelosi was a poor choice for Speaker, and I hope it doesn’t come back to haunt the Democrats.
November 28th, 2006 at 5:45 pmBravo. Speaker-elect Pelosi is doing the right thing. The point has never been Rep. Hastings, as much as many would like to make him the issue. The issue of Rep. Harman, whose enabling hands are as dirty in the Mega-Mogadishu of Iraq and the whole travesty of the Bush National Insecurity Team as those of Sen. Joe Lieberman or Sen. John McCain. She does not deserve the post, and she cannot be trusted. It is unfortunate that many in the blogosphere, notably Talking Points Memo, have spent so much time on the failings of Hastings and so little time on the complicity of Harman. But Speaker-elect Pelosi is going to put it all behind us, and I say BRAVO!
November 28th, 2006 at 6:34 pmThen we can get down to business:
The USA needs to accept the fact of another failed regime — this one at home. The USA needs somewhere to affix the blame. The USA needs to point the finger, not outwardly, but inwardly. The USA needs a scapegoat, and I suggest the Bush-Cheney national insecurity team.
The US political establishment needs to distance itself quickly from a series of national security debacles, including the Mega-Mogadishu in Iraq, the failure to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden, the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the arrogant disregard of the Geneva Accords and the disasterous policy of Malign Neglect in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The only way to do this is to unleash congressional investigations and either bring down Bush-Cheney constitutionally via impeachment or politically via resignations. The evidence already exists in open source. Certainly, the leadership has access to even more.
I do not know if Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will blink (well, I doubt she would). But they cannot afford to let the Bush-Cheney regime off the mat politically or criminally. They must finish this…
The most likely scenario is to force the resignation of Cheney and Rove through the pursuit of various investigations, which would force the completion of Poppy’s makeover of this administration (i.e., Robert Gates, the Iraq Working Group, etc.) and leave George W. Bush under what would amount to an unspoken White House arrest (and little more than a legend in his own mind) for the last two years of his second (and final) term.
For more, click here – Hard Rain Journal 11-20-06: The USA Needs A Scapegoat, I Suggest the Bush-Cheney National Insecurity Team
Richard Power
Words of Power
Why on earth would selecting the first female Speaker in 230 years come back to haunt Dems. The only thing haunting Dems is the despicable treatment of Pelosi by the corporate media. The double-standards are a disgrace.
November 28th, 2006 at 6:35 pmGreat post’s…Blessings
November 28th, 2006 at 8:31 pmFifty years ago we would have had Hastings hanging upside down with a FORK up his ass.
November 28th, 2006 at 11:07 pmDo I need to remind you all that Clinton was impeached by the same right wing fascists we have running this country at this point?
When will people get the picture that just because a politician has a chequered past does not always mean they are bad news.
The Nazis always gun down those who they fear the most.
November 29th, 2006 at 7:30 amCongressman Hastings would be a distraction as Chair of the Committee — we all know how Republicans can make something out of nothing to change the topic — especially when we should be talking about the issues surronding this war.
The Republicans lost at least nine seats because of ethical problems — why would we give them such an easy target?
Does anyone doubt that Jack Murtha’s abscam problems wouldn’t be the main topic of discussion all day, every day, if he were Majority Leader??
November 29th, 2006 at 10:05 amAll fine and well, but has Pelosi yet met with Harman to close the door on her bid? If not, I have a *huge* problem with this.
November 29th, 2006 at 10:29 amre #5 and # 23
In an attempt to fill out the detail on Hastings triva let me offer the following.
Mr. Hastings was impeached during a time that Democrats controlled the House, not Republicans; and convicted by the Senate at a time when Democrats controlled the Senate. In other words, it was not a partisian witch-hunt. Mr. Hastings was removed from office because of overwhelming evidence that he had solicited and accepted bribes while sitting as a federal judge.
It is true that he was found not guilty during his criminal trial. However; it is also true that the payer of the bribe in question was found guilty and sentenced to prison. Thus we have one man found guilty of paying a bribe to a man found not guilty of taking it – an interesting situation to be sure. Interestingly, the payer refused to testify against Mr. Hastings, one thing which may have aided in Mr. Hastings’ defense. Surprisingly, after refusing to testify against Mr. Hasting, the bribe payor was pardoned by Pres. Clinton after serving only a few months in prison.
If I have to spell it out, the reason not to have Mr. Hastings as chair of the Intelligence Committee goes something like this: Don’t put a person with a proven record of selling his office in a position where he can sell secrets. This is basic, common sense to those who approve security clearances and shoudl be self evident to anyone who is willing to put principle and country ahead of party politics.
November 29th, 2006 at 12:04 pm