Pelosi May Face Tough Choice Over Hastings as Intelligence Head

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

By Nicholas Johnston and Jeff Bliss, Bloomberg

November 2, 2006

It's a conservative talk show host's dream: a newly ascendant Democratic House speaker picking an impeached judge to head the highly sensitive Intelligence Committee.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi may do just that. She is considering tapping as the next panel chairman seven-term Florida Democrat Alcee Hastings, who lost his federal judgeship almost two decades ago after being impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate.

The selection would give critics an opportunity to attack Pelosi from the first days of a Democratic majority, which may result from next week's elections.

``They'll have a tough decision to make,'' former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said of Democratic leaders. ``I don't think they'll want the opening of a new majority, if they do get a majority, to be a judge that has been impeached and removed from office as chairman of the most sensitive committee in Congress.''

Passing over Hastings has its own political risks for Pelosi because it may anger black Democratic lawmakers.

Hastings, now the second-ranking Democrat on the committee, is under serious consideration for the chairmanship along with Silvestre Reyes of Texas, 61, a Democratic aide said. The aide said the top-ranked Democrat on the panel, Jane Harman of California, who has clashed with Pelosi, is unlikely to get the chairmanship.

Harman's Issues

Harman, 61, has her own baggage. Time Magazine reported last month that the Justice Department was investigating whether she improperly sought help from a pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to be reappointed to the intelligence panel. Harman has denied any wrongdoing.

The selection of Hastings, 70, would cap a remarkable recovery, from an overwhelming impeachment vote in the House in 1988 to becoming chairman of a committee at the center of many of the chamber's most important debates.

Hastings and a friend, attorney William Borders Jr., were indicted in 1981 for conspiring to solicit bribes from two convicted racketeers in exchange for sentences that wouldn't include jail time. Borders was convicted the following year and sent to prison. Hastings maintained his innocence and was acquitted in 1983.

Panel of Judges

In 1987 a panel of federal judges ruled that Hastings had lied and manufactured evidence during the trial, and recommended to Congress that he be impeached.

The evidence against Hastings presented during the subsequent House impeachment and Senate trial was largely circumstantial, focusing on calls between Hastings and Borders during the federal investigation of the scheme.

The House in 1988 voted 413-3 to impeach Hastings and the Senate voted 69-26 to convict and remove him from office. Pelosi and her current second-in-command, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, both voted to impeach.

Representative John Conyers of Michigan, who may become Judiciary Committee chairman if Democrats win the House, led the impeachment effort. Conyers, who is black, said Hastings's status as the first black federal judge in Florida didn't excuse his behavior.

``Judge Hastings has been the architect of his own undoing,'' Conyers said before the impeachment vote. ``Judge Hastings has committed high crimes and misdemeanors and should be impeached.''

Defenders

Hastings, first elected to the House in 1992, has his defenders. Representative Louise Slaughter of New York said he is ``studied, serious and has done his job well.''

Hastings spokesman Fred Turner said it would be inappropriate to talk about committee assignments before the Nov. 7 election. Polls show Democrats are well-positioned to make the net gain of 15 seats they need to take control of the House.

Pelosi must juggle competing interests in selecting an intelligence chairman. She was criticized by some members of the Congressional Black Caucus, of which Conyers is a founding member, for not backing Louisiana Democrat William Jefferson, who is the target of a federal bribery investigation.

North Carolina Democratic Representative Mel Watt, chairman of the caucus, said in an interview that the group won't take a stand on the committee chairmanship until after the election.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus hasn't taken a position on the candidacy of Reyes, who is a former chairman, said Angela Ramirez, executive director of the caucus.

`Difficult Decision'

``It's an extremely difficult decision'' for Pelosi, said Thomas Mann, a scholar at Washington's Brookings Institute, a public policy group.

Former Democratic Representative Tim Roemer, who served on the intelligence panel with Hastings, said Democrats should choose their committee leaders with the goal of keeping the focus on their legislative agenda instead of a member's background.

``If Democrats take over in the November elections, it's certainly beneficial for them to be talking about addressing national security issues with new ideas, rather than talking about their past,'' said Roemer, who is now president of the Center for National Policy, a Washington-based public policy group.

Former intelligence officials said the choice should be made carefully.

``This is an appointment that should be thought about before it's confirmed,'' said William Odom, a former National Security Agency director under President Ronald Reagan.

###