Hastings win would not be forgotten

Barry Casselman:

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... making Mr. Hastings the House Intelligence Committee chairman would be a controversy that is unlikely to go away any time soon. It is a public relations nightmare for the Democrats, who will have to explain again and again why a man who was impeached and removed from office as a federal judge should become the chairman of so sensitive a committee. (Indeed, serious questions could be raised as to why he is on the committee at all.) It could even raise a minor constitutional crisis if President Bush and his administration balked at working with the chairman, citing the fact that we are currently at war with terrorists all over the world. Most Americans might sympathize with the view that only men and women of the highest integrity should have access to the nation's most important secret intelligence.

Mrs. Pelosi's decision is complicated by the fact that Mr. Hastings, who is black, has the support of the liberal Congressional Black Caucus, which apparently wants to make this an issue of political correctness.

The bottom line, however, is that Mrs. Pelosi's challenge now is not continually to settle old scores, but to get her party off to productive leadership of the House. The presidential election is now the political focus of the media and the political class, and those who clamor for a Democratic president in 2008, especially if that person is to be the first female president, do not need chronic self-caused controversy and pettiness to surround the Democrats' attempt to restore their credibility to lead the nation.

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I don't think the country voted the Democrats in so they could settle a few small scores. The country wants the Democrats to demonstrate they can take charge of our many big problems.

I think that is the hope of many in the liberal media. Pelosi has shown little that would suggest that their hope will be realized. She has always been tone deaf when it comes to national security and she has demonstrated that the "culture of corruption" was just a talking point for an election and not a matter of principal. If she selects Hastings all Democrats will be regretting that choice in the coming years, even the Congressional Black Caucus that is currently pushing it. In fact, the CBC should be embarrassed that this is the best they can do for a key intelligence post.