Is Alcee Hastings (Impeached Judge) Still Set to Chair Intel?

[On the Road]

As a judge in Florida, Hastings was convicted of accepting a $150K bribe and committing perjury.

Many news outlets like the NYT and the Baltimore Sun are reporting that Pelosi is supporting Hastings for Chair of the Intelligence committe.

Giving a chairmanship to Hastings is a sure-fire way to ruin any anti-corruption campaign the Democrats try to pursue. This is no time for trading favors and lining up behind any member of the party.

Cali started a thread in GD over the weekend, but this is important enough to keep on the table. Anyone else who is concerned about this, please contact Nancy Pelosi's office. .

Washington, D.C. Office
2371 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
[phone]
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/contact/contact.html
[e-mail] <[e-mail]>

[eallen]

1. That would be an especially bad move for the Intelligence committee.

[Gloria]

2. I heard that Pelosi and Harman don't get along.....Harman, at least,

has shown some signs of recognizing the blogs after going along for the ride on the Iraq thing...but at least she hasn't been convicted of anything. Hastings will be a lightning rod. Besides, if you've been convicted of bribe-taking and perjury, why the hell would you want to showcase him as the head of the Intelligence committee??? OY VEY

[Ignacio Upton]

3. I thought she was considering Silvestre Reyes in addition to Hastings?

Putting Hastings on the committee, combined with choosing Murtha, will make 2008 look like 2006's undoing.

[Sensitivity]

4. Dem cannot afford Hastings. BUT, your post is WRONG

Hasting was never "convicted" of anything:

He was "charged with conspiring to accept a $150,000 bribe to lighten the sentencing in a case before him and then lying about it during his 1983 trial, which acquitted him."

[On the Road]

5. This is What Wikipedia Says:

"The Democratic-controlled Senate convicted Judge Hastings of accepting a $150,000 bribe in 1981 in exchange for a lenient sentence and of perjury in his testimony about the case."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcee

[beaconess]

6. He was convicted in the Senate as part of the impeachment process

But he was acquitted in a court of law and is therefore, legally not guilty of any crime.

[On the Road]

7. That is Correct

"Conviction" was ambiguous and suggested a court of law. But it is an appropriate term. And Hastings had the distinciton of being removed from office.

Nancy Pelosi cannot control who the people of Florida vote for. But personally, I believe the bar has to be set much, much higher for leadership positions.

[Sgent]

8. This guy

shouldn't even be on the intelligence committee -- much less a member of the gang of 8.

[grasswire]

9. let's look carefully

from wikipedia:

Hastings filed suit in federal court claiming that his impeachment trial was invalid because he was tried by a Senate committee, not in front of the full Senate, and that he had been acquitted in a criminal trial. Judge Stanley Sporkin (appointed by Reagan) ruled in favor of Hastings, remanding the case back to the Senate, but stayed his ruling pending the outcome of an appeal to the Supreme Court in a similar case regarding Judge Walter Nixon, who had also been impeached and removed.

Sporkin found some "crucial distinctions"<2> between Nixon's case and Hastings', specifically, that Nixon had been convicted criminally, and that Hastings was not found guilty by two-thirds of the committee who actually "tried" his impeachment in the Senate. He further added that Hastings had a right to trial by the full Senate.

The Supreme Court, however, ruled that the federal courts have no jurisdiction over Senate impeachment matters, and Sporkin's ruling was vacated, and Hastings' conviction and removal were upheld.

[grasswire]

10. so apparently there were enough irregularities that...

..a Republican judge thought Hastings should be retried by the full Senate instead of just a committee.

[fujiyama]

11. Pelosi has been a disappointment

and this is the first week. This along with backing Murtha, who also has some real skeletons...

Hastings is simply unfit to head the intelligence committee. This is an embarrassment. He would likely not pass certain security clearances for jobs with that much access to top secret material. As another poster said, he shouldn't even be on the intelligence committee.

What the fuck is Pelosi thinking? I don't particularly like Harmon, and she has her own issues under investigation...but she'd be better than Hastings. I thought Pelosi was looking at a third person for this position.