November 6, 200619 yr Does anybody take Charlie Rangel seriously? Next, Pelosi will be saying that she wants Dennis Kusinich to chair the Intelligence Committee.
November 6, 200619 yr Author More on the man who may soon become Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee: Pelosi's Unintelligent Choice by Ruth Marcus (Washington Post) If Democrats win control of the House next week, Nancy Pelosi's first test as speaker will arrive long before the 110th Congress convenes. Her choice to head the House intelligence committee -- unlike other House committees, this one is left entirely up to the party leadership -- will speak volumes about whether a Speaker Pelosi will be able to resist a return to paint-by-numbers Democratic Party interest-group politics as usual. Pelosi is in a box of her own devising. The panel's ranking Democrat is her fellow Californian Jane Harman -- smart and hardworking but also abrasive, ambitious and, in Pelosi's estimation, insufficiently partisan on the committee. So Pelosi, once the intelligence panel's ranking Democrat herself, has made clear that she doesn't intend to name Harman to the chairmanship. The wrong decision, in my view, but one that's magnified by the unfortunate fact that next in line is Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings. In 1989, after being acquitted in a criminal trial, Hastings was stripped of his position as a federal judge -- impeached by the House in which he now serves and convicted by the Senate -- for conspiring to extort a $150,000 bribe in a case before him, repeatedly lying about it under oath and manufacturing evidence at his trial. Read more scary details
November 6, 200619 yr Author Not a bad lineup Nancy, compared to the crooks holding those seats now.Care to list the curret Republican chairs who are "crooks," along with the crimes and scandals with which they have been associated? How about a list of Republicans who have ever been impeached, convicted, and removed from public office and later appointed to chair a House Committee? Let's see how the current chairmen compare to the lineup that Nancy Pelosi has rounded up to relace them.
November 6, 200619 yr Care to list the curret Republican chairs who are "crooks," along with the crimes and scandals with which they have been associated? How about a list of Republicans who have ever been impeached, convicted, and removed from public office and later appointed to chair a House Committee? Let's see how the current chairmen compare to the lineup that Nancy Pelosi has rounded up to relace them. I'll give you a complete run down once we investigate and prosecute the crimes and cover ups of the current administration.
November 6, 200619 yr There is something to be said for your opinion of the Democratic team. This election comes down to choosing between a team that you suspect will be bad versus a team that we know from painful experience IS bad. No one that fails as badly as the Republicans have deserves any thought of reelection. Take a look at some of the candidates that have been recruited to run by the Democrats. Many of them are far more centrist than their leaders. My guess is that Pelosi and company will govern much more from the center than any of you are imagining. Nancy Pelosi would not be my first choice as speaker, but if the choice is between Speaker Pelosi and leaving the failed Republicans in charge, that is an easy choice. The consequence of failure is to be replaced. And for all of you out there fearing for the republic if the Democrats win, relax. We have survived worse. The country and our insttutions are strong. If we can survive the Bush administration there is nothing Speaker Pelosi can do that will hurt us that much.
November 6, 200619 yr There is something to be said for your opinion of the Democratic team. This election comes down to choosing between a team that you suspect will be bad versus a team that we know from painful experience IS bad. No one that fails as badly as the Republicans have deserves any thought of reelection. Take a look at some of the candidates that have been recruited to run by the Democrats. Many of them are far more centrist than their leaders. My guess is that Pelosi and company will govern much more from the center than any of you are imagining. Nancy Pelosi would not be my first choice as speaker, but if the choice is between Speaker Pelosi and leaving the failed Republicans in charge, that is an easy choice. The consequence of failure is to be replaced. And for all of you out there fearing for the republic if the Democrats win, relax. We have survived worse. The country and our insttutions are strong. If we can survive the Bush administration there is nothing Speaker Pelosi can do that will hurt us that much. There's the bottom line. Do we stay the course with an administration defined by ineptitude, or do we change the guard and risk improvement? An easy choice for me.
November 6, 200619 yr There's the bottom line. Do we stay the course with an administration defined by ineptitude, or do we change the guard and risk improvement? An easy choice for me. To the best of my knowledge, we don't vote on a new adminstration until 2008.
November 7, 200619 yr To the best of my knowledge, we don't vote on a new adminstration until 2008. Right....but we reinstate oversite tomorrow.
November 7, 200619 yr Author I'll give you a complete run down once we investigate and prosecute the crimes and cover ups of the current administration.So what you are saying is that you cannot name names until Democrats launch a broad scale witch hunt. Democrats need to put a tail on Alcee Hastings and make sure that he does not try to snag a really big bribe this time around. $150,000 is chump change compared to what our nation's most tightly held secrets could fetch. A Democratic Congress removed Hastings from the bench and now they are prepared to name him Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. I can certainly see how Democrats plan to set the pace for ethics when (if) they take over.
November 7, 200619 yr So what you are saying is that you cannot name names until Democrats launch a broad scale witch hunt. Democrats need to put a tail on Alcee Hastings and make sure that he does not try to snag a really big bribe this time around. $150,000 is chump change compared to what our nation's most tightly held secrets could fetch. A Democratic Congress removed Hastings from the bench and now they are prepared to name him Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. I can certainly see how Democrats plan to set the pace for ethics when (if) they take over. No, that's what you are saying.
November 7, 200619 yr Author No, that's what you are saying.You said that the current house has a bunch of crooks serving as chairmen. I asked you to name them. Unable to do so, you promised investigations to identify those who you have already determined to be crooks. That is not how the justice system is supposed to work, but I suspect that you are right about a Pelosi led House. Pelosi could have avoided the prospect of placing an impeached (and removed) federal judge in one of the most important positions in the House, but she decided that Jane Harmon is not partisan enough for the job. How concerned about ethics could a party be that plans to put Alcee Hastings in charge of House Intelligence?
November 7, 200619 yr I'll give you a complete run down once we investigate and prosecute the crimes and cover ups of the current administration. Sound like the 1950's to anyone else?
November 7, 200619 yr Sound like the 1950's to anyone else? Wonderful observation. McCarthyism anyone?
November 7, 200619 yr I'll give you a complete run down once we investigate and prosecute the crimes and cover ups of the current administration. It would be nice if you would do that BEFORE calling them crooks. And what crimes are you referring to? Elaborate please.
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