According to recent news accounts, House speaker Pelosi really wanted to placate the Black caucus and appoint Hastings. Harman sounds like she had some insight into, and appreciation for, the Pentagon, which of course makes her insufficiently shrill. There's also some history between Pelosi and Harmon.
House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has decided against naming either Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the senior Democrat on the House intelligence committee, or Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (Fla.), the panel's No. 2 Democrat, to chair the pivotal committee next year.
The unresolved issues between the "blue dog" democrats and the liberals will have to play out --
The fight over the top spot on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has exposed the kind of factional politics that bedeviled House Democrats before they were swept from control in 1994. Harman, a moderate, strong-on-defense "Blue Dog" Democrat, had angered liberals with her reluctance to challenge the Bush administration's use of intelligence. Hastings, an African American, was strongly backed by the Congressional Black Caucus but was ardently opposed by the Blue Dogs, who said his removal from the bench disqualifies him from such a sensitive post.
Of course, Hastings offered his congratulations on the victory acheived by the vast right wing conspiracy; including,columnists, bloggers,
"...and other assorted misinformed fools."
espresso beans to Drudge
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