Pelosi's next unforced error

LA Times Editorial:

NEWLY MINTED House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is off to a rocky start. On the same day she was formally elected to lead the new Democratic majority, party colleagues refused to endorse her bizarre choice of Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), who was investigated but not charged in the Abscam scandal more than two decades ago, as her second-in-command.

That embarrassing experience should induce Pelosi (D-San Francisco) — who appeared chastened before reporters Thursday — to reconsider another ill-advised promotion: Her apparent intention to bestow the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee not on the panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), but on Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.).

Hastings, like Murtha, seems an unlikely choice for a leadership role in what Pelosi has been advertising as "the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history." Hastings was impeached as a federal judge and removed from office in the late 1980s (although he was acquitted of bribery in a criminal trial in 1983).

A litany of explanations have been adduced to explain why Pelosi would bypass Harman, an expert on intelligence matters who has won the respect of both parties while criticizing some of the Bush administration's excesses in the war on terror. None of them is persuasive. Harman has earned this chairmanship.

...
While the editorial may overstate Harmon's qualifications, there is little doubt that they exceed those of Hastings. I may be a little unfair in characterizing this as an unforced error. It is actually an error that is being forced by the Congressional Black Caucus which is blind to Hastings disqualifications for the position. All they see is color and not qualification. Pelosi still has no excuse for making a choice this bad.

Update: Marc Sheppard has background on Hastings. He is in pretty rare company having been impeached and convicted. According to The Hill the Blue Dog Democrats are backing Harmon for chairman of the intelligence committee.

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