Pelosi - doing the right thing on the HPSCI

The two ranking Dems on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence are Jane Harman of CA and Alcee Hastings of FL. Many of Pelosi's colleagues have serious issues with giving the gavel for that committee to Harman. They believe she's cozyed up to the Republicans one too many times. I can't say I disagree with this sentiment, given how important a thorough evaluation of the intelligence failures leading up to 9/11 as well as an analysis of the run-up to the Iraq war are.

Usually this isn't a huge problem; a ranking member has been passed over in the past. The problem in this instance is that the next in seniority on the HPSCI is Alcee Hastings. Giving Hastings the chair of any committee presents an ethical conundrum for the Dems. When he was a federal judge, Hastings was impeached and removed from the bench. He later ran for and was elected to the House, providing Republicans with an incredible amount of material with which to mock Democrats in general and black Democratic voters specifically.

The current Democratic caucus took a bold step when they spanked "Dollar Bill" Jefferson by pulling his plum committee assignments after $90K in cash turned up in his freezer. Like Hastings, Jefferson is running on a blame-it-on-the-man platform. The notion that a black pol was set up by the white man (personified by the FBI and a Republican Justice Department) works for even the most morally bankrupt politicians.

It's good to see Pelosi is considering rejecting both Harman and Hastings:

That leaves Pelosi looking at two compromise picks. One is Rep. Norm Dicks, a onetime strong Iraq-war backer who has since joined ranks with Murtha and now wants a phased troop withdrawal. The other is Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a quiet Texas lawmaker and former Border Patrol official who opposed the Iraq war from the outset.

I don't know much about either Dicks or Reyes, but either of them sounds like a better idea than Harman or Hastings.

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