Let me say a few more words about the House intel committee chair issue. From what I hear Alcee Hastings (D-FL) has done a decent job at the intel committee in the various ways one evaluates committee work. And he seems well-liked by colleagues. I’ve always had a good impression of him when I’ve seen him on the chat shows. But there is no ignoring this fact: when he was on a federal bench he was charged with taking bribes. He was acquitted at trial. But a then-Democratic Congress subsequently impeached and convicted him, tossing him off the bench.
I don’t know enough yet about the particulars of the case against him. (We’re going to have a full run-down of the issues later this afternoon on TPMmuckraker.com.) But the conviction in the senate tells me the charges must at least have been pretty serious, if not enough to win a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal trial.
Given the centrality of intelligence work in our national policy debates today, the importance of secrecy in handling classified information and how politicized and contentious intel debates have become, I don’t see how you can have the chairman of the intel committee be someone about whom there is any serious question whether or not they accepted bribes as judges to subvert justice.
Yes, I’m going to reserve final judgment until I see Justin’s summary of the charges. But can anyone really disagree with this? How can making Hastings chairman of that committee make any sense?
