Sid
11-29-2006, 03:51 PM
In a test of her leadership, House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi rejected once-impeached Rep. Alcee Hastings as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, a move that could blunt early criticism she is paying lip service to ethics reform.
At the same time, the California Democrat's decision not to promote Hastings could ruffle her relations with black lawmakers.
Hastings, a Miramar Democrat, announced Pelosi's decision after an hourlong meeting with the party leader. Pelosi has been hammered by newspaper editorials and critics for suggesting that she would select Hastings -- who was removed from the federal bench by the Senate in 1989 -- to become chairman of the sensitive committee.
Hastings, a member of the committee since 1999, had mounted an aggressive public relations campaign to secure the seat, charging his critics with a ``frenetic attempt to justify denying me a position I have certainly earned and am completely competent to perform.''
Hastings, the first federal black judge in Florida, had been on the bench for two years when he was accused in a 1981 FBI sting of soliciting a $150,000 bribe in return for a less severe sentence for two men convicted of racketeering. He was cleared of bribery charges by a federal jury in 1983, but a panel of federal judges recommended he be removed from the bench. In 1988, the House agreed by a vote of 413-3, and the Senate later followed, voting to remove him in 1989.
Pelosi rejects Hastings for intelligence post (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/16119068.htm)
At the same time, the California Democrat's decision not to promote Hastings could ruffle her relations with black lawmakers.
Hastings, a Miramar Democrat, announced Pelosi's decision after an hourlong meeting with the party leader. Pelosi has been hammered by newspaper editorials and critics for suggesting that she would select Hastings -- who was removed from the federal bench by the Senate in 1989 -- to become chairman of the sensitive committee.
Hastings, a member of the committee since 1999, had mounted an aggressive public relations campaign to secure the seat, charging his critics with a ``frenetic attempt to justify denying me a position I have certainly earned and am completely competent to perform.''
Hastings, the first federal black judge in Florida, had been on the bench for two years when he was accused in a 1981 FBI sting of soliciting a $150,000 bribe in return for a less severe sentence for two men convicted of racketeering. He was cleared of bribery charges by a federal jury in 1983, but a panel of federal judges recommended he be removed from the bench. In 1988, the House agreed by a vote of 413-3, and the Senate later followed, voting to remove him in 1989.
Pelosi rejects Hastings for intelligence post (http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/states/florida/counties/broward_county/16119068.htm)