Redstate

Criminy, I have to pick just one?

By Moe Lane Posted in Congress — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

You hear more and more about Silvestre Reyes these days (Via Just One Minute). Representative Reyes is, of course, the favored (read: 'prayed for by every Democrat with a functioning cerebral cortex') alternative to Alcee Hastings for House Chair:

Having campaigned against what she called the GOP's "culture of corruption" for much of the last year, Ms. Pelosi is in an exquisite bind. She either alienates one of the most important parts of her political coalition or she gives the appearance of being indifferent to ethical concerns. My prediction is that she will choose Plan C, skipping over both Ms. Harman and Mr. Hastings and instead appointing Texas Rep. Silvestre Reyes, a former Border Patrol official, as chairman of House Intelligence. Not only does Mr. Reyes have a record of probity and discretion, but he would become the only Latino to chair a House committee in the next Congress.

Not only all of that, but this way Rep. Pelosi won't have to listen to genial comments about how she opposed Hastings having a position of trust and honor before she supported him. For the next two years. Max.

Read on.

I understand that some of our Democratic friends - and I mean that in a non-ironic fashion; some of mine are getting downright nervous about the way that things are maybe possibly about to start sliding off the beam for them - are hoping to God that all of this is just a head-fake. The idea is that Pelosi will let the buzz build, announce the replacement of Harman with Reyes at just the right psychological moment to lock down the centrists, and voila! we Republicans gnash our teeth and mug for the cheap seats as rose petals drift down from Heaven to honor the Democratic ascension into power. Reason and happy Cherubs drift along. There may even be free beer.

Now, personally, if we must have a Democrat with oversight* I'd rather see Harman - I don't get weak-kneed at the thought of the government trolling my phone calls looking for let's-kill-us-some-Americans keywords, and (thank you, Red Dwarf) I don't think that 'AIPAC' rhymes with 'scum' - than Reyes; nothing personal about the latter, but he hasn't pinged my radar enough as of yet. But I'm willing to accept John Fund's reaction to him, at least provisionally. Not much choice, yah, you betcha: whoever Pelosi gives the nod to has the job, whether I like it or not.

So I guess that I'm missing the need for the head-fake. My Party couldn't dictate the choice any which way; it isn't our Party and we're not going to be the majority in January. There's no need for Pelosi to play with fire; we know all the players involved, so there's no surprise there - and we're already starting up the oppo research, and that has its own schedule anyway. Right now the only practical result of all of this has been to start the whispers on Pelosi's own team that if this goes through then maybe she shouldn't be Speaker after all.

Which, honestly, she shouldn't be. But no Democrats will listen to me, ha-ha!

I expect that what's happening here is that Nancy Pelosi is simply plodding along, here. She will be genuinely planning to put Hastings in that slot until the very moment that that Harry Reid pulls out a shotgun and mutters plata o plomo. Which would be a pity, in its way: while an incompetent and tone-deaf Speaker is a joy to have, when you're the opposition Party, the Democrats won't let her muck up their shindig for too long. What I'm hoping is that Pelosi was really actually planning to pick Reyes all along - because if she is, then all of this nonsense was for one reason, and one reason alone: she's afraid. Yeah, I know that she's got no real reason to be - but if she doesn't know that in her gut yet, well, my.

Oh, my. These next two years might end up being a lot more fun than I thought...

Moe

*And we must, alas.