Inside the Pelosi-Harman Battle Royale

Ahh, those unified Dems:

Harman is a moderate on national security, noted for her expertise. She has a reputation for bipartisan comity and has worked to pull Democrats to the center on defense and intelligence issues. Hastings, on the other hand, is a former federal judge who, thanks to his involvement in a bribery scheme, is one of only seven judges in history to be impeached by the House and removed by the Senate. He is a left-wing Democrat with an undistinguished congressional record who will certainly be a hyperpartisan leader of a traditionally bipartisan committee.

For most people, this wouldn’t seem a tough choice. For Pelosi, it’s not either — she seems dead set against Harman.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Pelosi and Harman once were friends, but now “the two rarely talk.” The relationship might have been soured by their clashing personalities, or parochial California political considerations, or sheer envy. According to the Times’s tally, Harman has been on major Sunday talk shows 18 times during the past two years to Pelosi’s six appearances.

An original supporter of the Iraq War, Harman initially resisted Democratic calls for an immediate withdrawal, although she has tilted that way more recently. She has criticized the White House for not getting congressional authorization for the terrorist surveillance program, but supports the program itself. All of this might turn off Pelosi, but comports with the reasonable, bipartisan image the Democrats have attempted to project in taking over the House.

If Pelosi bumps Harman, the next in line is Hastings. He is not a security threat in the sense that he will start selling secrets to the Russians, but the symbolism of his running an extremely sensitive congressional committee is, at the very least, gross. Liberal editorial boards, the foreign-policy establishment and the moderate Blue Dog Democrats have all endorsed Harman. Pelosi still might feel compelled to choose Hastings because of his important countervailing endorsement — from the Congressional Black Caucus.

And here I thought we'd have to wait until Nancy Pelosi was actually wielding the Speaker's gavel before she'd be undone by her own preening arrogance.