Pelosi Rejects Hastings as Intelligence Chairman
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The House speaker-elect, Nancy Pelosi of California, announced yesterday that she will not name as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee a Florida lawmaker, Alcee Hastings, who was impeached and removed from his post as a federal judge in 1989.
The battle for the chairmanship of the intelligence panel has drawn unusual attention because, according to congressional aides, Ms. Pelosi has indicated privately that she does not intend to give the chairmanship to the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jane Harman of California.
“Congressman Alcee Hastings and I have had extensive consultations, and today I advised him that I would select someone else as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,” Ms. Pelosi said in a written statement following an hour-long meeting at the Capitol with Mr. Hastings, who was the second-ranking Democrat on the panel. “Alcee Hastings has always placed national security as his highest priority. He has served our country well, and I have full confidence that he will continue to do so,” she said.
Mr. Hastings, who was recently elected by voters to an eighth term, lamented the missed opportunity. “I am obviously disappointed with this decision. As we learn in Ecclesiastes, however, for everything, there is a season,” he wrote. “Our nation’s national security is far more important than my professional security.”
The congressman’s statement concluded, caustically and somewhat cryptically, “Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet.” He seemed to be alluding to critics who said appointing an impeached judge to a key chairmanship would send a bad message for Democrats who won control of the Congress in part because of Republican ethics scandals. Defenders of Mr. Hastings noted that he was acquitted in a criminal trial and has developed a strong reputation on Capitol Hill.
The rather mundane organizational decision has played out like a soap opera in Washington, owing to a string of reports that personal tension between Ms. Pelosi and Ms. Harman would lead to her being passed over for Mr. Hastings. Racial concerns and liberal bloggers hostile to Ms. Harman have also played roles in stoking the drama.
The origins of the difficulties between Ms. Pelosi, who represents San Francisco, and Ms. Harman, whose district lies to the west and south of Los Angeles, are not entirely clear. A report in the Los Angeles Times traced the troubles to a squabble over whether an airport would be redistricted into or out of Ms. Harman’s district. Others point to differences in personal style and to Ms. Harman’s prominence on national television discussing security issues like Iraq.
Some liberals have denounced Ms. Harman as a hawk who parroted the Bush administration line about Iraq, but a Congressional aide disputed that assessment. “She got rolled the same way the country got rolled,” the aide, who asked not to be named, said.
A former speechwriter for Vice President Gore, Kenneth Baer, said early support for the war could not be an appropriate test for winning a committee chairmanship. “If you’re going to disqualify Jane Harman for her Iraq vote, what do you do about Tom Lantos?” Mr. Baer asked, referring to a California congressman in line to chair the International Affairs Committee.
Passing over Ms. Harman would seem to undermine one of the Democrats’ campaign promises, a vow to implement all aspects of the report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which called for continuity on the intelligence committees. “The 9/11 commission was right that it’s best to keep experts on a committee like the intelligence committee,” Mr. Baer said.
Several of Ms. Harman’s backers said they hoped Ms. Pelosi would reverse course but doubted that it would happen. Other House members are reportedly under consideration for the intelligence slot, including the no.3 Democrat on the panel, Silvestre Reyes of Texas, as well as Norman Dicks of Washington and Sanford Bishop of Georgia.