Alcee Hastings to Replace Harman on House Intelligence Committee?



(image via zogbyblog)

As a bleary-eyed Corsair sipped wanly on his own personal recipe Kenyan blend coffee while watching, with arched brow, "The Chris Matthews Show" on Sunday, a nougaty morsel of Hill gossip was thrown -- we believe by Joe Klein of Time -- into the fray. In the "Tell Me Something I Don't Know" segment, it was said that Nancy Pelosi wants to replace Congresswoman Jane Harman with former impeached judge Alcee Hastings on the House Intelligence Committee.

"Pelosification" continues apace (Pelosification, n, the act of applying slight cosmetic change -- i.e. "framing" -- to a situation of extreme ideological crisis).

From Alcee Hastings, Plaintiff, versus, United States of America, et al, Defendants:

"Judge Alcee Hastings, a federal district court judge, was removed from office by the United States Senate after he was convicted on articles of impeachment on October 20, 1989.

"Impeachment is an extraordinary remedy. As an essential element of our constitutional system of checks and balances, impeachment must be invoked and carried out with solemn respect and scrupulous attention to fairness. Fairness and due process must be the watchword whenever a branch of the United States government conducts a trial, whether it be in a criminal case, a civil case or a case of impeachment.

"[1] The key issue in this case is whether a life-tenured Article III judge who has been acquitted of felony charges by a petit jury can thereafter be impeached and tried for essentially the same alleged indiscretion by a committee of the United States Senate consisting of less than the full Senate. This Court determines that the answer is no.

"The plaintiff is a former United States District Court judge. He has brought this action against the United States of America, the United States Senate, and several individual federal officers claiming that he was impeached, convicted and removed from judicial office in violation of the Constitution."

Aren't there better candidates to serve on the House Intelligence Committee during this war on terror?