Opinion: Harm Done to Harman

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

At the close of Thursday’s editorial (re)endorsing Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) to chair the House Intelligence Committee, The Times editorial board put this question to Nancy Pelosi: “Which will it be, Madame Speaker: leader or boss.”

In bypassing Harman and anointing Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), as chairman, Pelosi has given her answer: She’s a boss.

But the Reyes appointment also shows Pelosi to be a “San Francisco Democrat” in the pejorative sense in which conservative Republicans use the term: someone who’s unduly influenced by the symbolism of interest-group politics.

The incoming speaker properly refused to bestow the chairmanship on the Intelligence Committee’s second most senior Democrat, Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla), who was impeached and removed from the federal bench by Congress in the 1980s. But instead of choosing Harman, she executed a sidestep.

By picking Reyes, a former chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Pelosi has placed Harman supporters in the awkward position of having preferred Harman to first an African-American and then a Hispanic.

Reyes’ selection also follows a fault line that we noted in our editorial: between Pelosi, who in 2002 voted against authorizing President Bush to go to war in Iraq, and Democrats like Harman who voted yes. Reyes also was a No vote on the Iraq war. Litmus tests are usually a bad idea, but in this case the new Speaker is symbolically excommunicating not only Harman but plenty of other Democrats in both houses of Congress.

Reyes may prove to be an effective chairman. He seems willing to work with Republicans and has made the right noises about more muscular oversight of the Bush administration’s classified programs. But Harman would have combined a concern about National Security Agency spying on Americans with invaluable experience as the panel’s ranking Democrat. In snubbing her, Pelosi has done her party and the country a disservice.