If this doesn't make your blood curdle nothing will: (via Ankle Biting Pundits )
Today I want to look at the incoming “chairman” of the Intelligence Committee, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL). Wait, you thought perhaps that Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) would take over the Intelligence Committee? Not so fast. Turns out “Speaker” Nancy Pelosi has plans to pass over Rep. Harman in favor of her crony Hastings.
And this is a problem, because Rep. Alcee Hastings is a bad man
Come on, he can't be that bad can he?
Don’t take my word for it, consider the bitterness of U.S. federal prosecutors who brought Hastings up on charges for allegedly accepting a $150,000 bribe from two brothers who had a case before then-Judge Alcee Hastings, a federal judge. That was in 1981. By 1983 Hastings was acquitted (though his co-defendant was convicted). But that wasn’t the end of the story:
Alcee Hastings was appointed to the bench for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida in 1979. He was indicted in December of 1981 on a charge of conspiracy to solicit and accept a bribe. On February 4, 1983, in a trial presided over by the late Judge Edward Gignoux of Maine, one of the most highly respected United States District Court judges of his day, Judge Hastings was acquitted by a jury. Six weeks after his acquittal, members of the Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit filed a complaint against Judge Hastings under the Judicial Disability Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 331, 332, 372(c), 604(h). Three and a half years later the Judicial Council issued a report and sent it to the Judicial Conference of the United States. The Judicial Conference met on March 17, 1987, concurred in the findings of the Council and recommended to the Speaker of the House that Judge Hastings be impeached.
And impeached he was:
On August 3, 1988, the House adopted seventeen articles of impeachment against Judge Hastings. The first fifteen articles reformulated the conspiracy charge of which Judge Hastings had been acquitted. They also charged Judge Hastings with presenting false testimony and fabricated evidence. Judge Hastings filed a motion to dismiss with the Senate which the Senate later rejected. The Senate convened an Impeachment Trial Committee pursuant to Rule XI of the Rules of Procedure and Practice when Sitting in Cases of Impeachment. Immediately thereafter, Judge Hastings filed a suit in United States District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the use of a trial committee as unconstitutional and seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the impeachment proceedings from going forward. The court dismissed the complaint for lack of jurisdiction. See Hastings v. United States, 716 F.Supp. 38 (D.D.C.1989). The trial went forward before the committee. On October 19 and 20, 1989 the Senate held debate on the Articles of Impeachment. Judge Hastings was convicted on Articles I, II, III, IV, V, VII, VIII, and IX. He was acquitted on Articles VI, XVI, and XVII. The Senate did not vote on Articles X-XV. See 135 Cong.Rec. S13783-88 (daily ed. Oct. 20, 1989).
When the voting record of the Impeachment Trial Committee was reviewed, it revealed that the twelve members of the committee did not vote to impeach by the required two-thirds majority on any of the articles of impeachment. The Chair and Vice Chair of the Impeachment Trial Committee, Senator Bingaman and Senator Specter, filed statements in support of acquittal. The committee proceedings were videotaped, but it is unclear how many senators actually reviewed the tapes. Nonetheless, enough senators who had not heard the evidence personally voted to convict to constitute the necessary two-thirds majority. Following his conviction, Judge Hastings was removed from judicial office, and his judicial salary was no longer paid to him. In July of 1991 he filed this action.
Hastings was impeached on eight counts, with even majorities of Senate Democrats voting to convict. It was only the sixth time in history that the U.S. Senate removed a federal judge through impeachment.
Whoaaaakay. THIS is the man that Pelosi chose to bypass Harman for? And guess what, if the Democrats take the house in November who do you think will be the head of the Intelligence Committee? Yup, Hastings.
Do you know how much highly confidential information goes through that chamber?
This is Pelosi's way of fighting the "Culture of Corruption"?
This is huge people. If you have a blog spread this far and wide. This is the kind of thing blogs are made for because we damn sure know that no MSM outfit will report this.
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