Jane Harman quitting Congress at end of month?

[babylonsister]

m$nbc just announced; any speculation as to why?

Edit to add:

U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), a leading congressional voice on anti-terrorism issues, plans to resign from Congress to head up the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a senior congressional source confirmed Monday, setting up a special election to choose her successor in a coastal district that stretches from Venice into the South Bay.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4724402

[leveymg]

1. She may have lost her security clearance. NSA wiretap of Israeli intel caught her promising to

"waddle in" to the OSP-AIPAC spy matter and to block the Obama Administration appointment of a designated National Security Advisor disfavored by the Netanyahu regime. The Israeli intel officer is also reported to have promised to pressure the House Speaker to appoint Harman Chair of the Intelligence Committee.

Cautious of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying: “This conversation never happened."

The Harman scandal broke in October 2006, when Time magazine reported that the Department of Justice and FBI were investigating links between Harman and AIPAC.

CQ subsequently reported “then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales intervened to kill the criminal investigation into Harman — even though DoJ (Department of Justice) lawyers had concluded that she committed crimes — because top Bush officials wanted Harman’s credibility to be preserved so that she could publicly defend the Bush administration’s illegal warrantless eavesdropping program.”

The CQ goes on to say that Gonzales “needed Jane” to help defend the administration’s warrant-less wiretapping program, which was about to break in The New York Times and “engulf the White House.”

Harman, Stein said, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, and she could be counted on again to help defend the program. He was right.

On Dec. 21, 2005, in the midst of a firestorm of criticism about the wiretaps, Harman became possibly the most crucial defender of the Bush warrant-less eavesdropping program, using her status as the ranking Democratic on the House Intelligence Committee to repeatedly praise the NSA program as essential to US national security and both necessary and legal, writes Stein.

And thanks to grateful Bush administration officials, the investigation of Harman was effectively dead.

In Spring 2009, when news of the NSA intercept was made public, Harman's Press Secretary refused to answer questions about whether her security clearance had been suspended.


More, See,


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Daily Kos: NYT: Harman-AIPAC Target was “Israeli Official”
Apr 29, 2009 ... But nobody says "waddle into" unless they are talking about ducks or penguins. .... Yes, that was Naor Gilon, (4+ / 0-) ...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/29/725801/-NYT:-Harman-AIPAC-Target-was-Israeli-Official - Cached
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Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists - NYTimes.com
Apr 20, 2009 ... Representative Jane Harman was overheard on calls agreeing to ... Ms. Harman was inadvertently swept up by N.S.A. eavesdroppers ... Ms. Harman, CQ said, told the person who requested her aid that she would “waddle in” to ...
www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/us/.../21harman.html - Similar - Add to iGoogle
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On Jane Harman, AIPAC, the NSA, etc. - Stephen M. Walt | FOREIGN ...
Apr 20, 2009 ... What did Harmon actually say, and did she in fact “waddle in” to the AIPAC ... the revelation that the NSA was monitoring phone calls by a ...
walt.foreignpolicy.com/.../on_jane_harman_aipac_the_nsa_etc - Cached - Similar
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US Rep. traded favors with Jewish lobby: report
In NSA wiretap Harman said she would "waddle in" on spy case. US Rep. traded favors with Jewish lobby: report. Monday, 27 April 2009 ...
www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/04/27/71558.html - Cached
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