Pelosi Picks Reyes as Head of Intelligence Panel

Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi ended speculation today when she named anti-war Rep. Silvestre Reyes (TX) to become the next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Included too in the Forbes article are Reyes' plans that he articulated to the business magazine before Pelosi's announcement.

In picking Vietnam veteran and Border Patrol agent-turned-congressman Reyes, Pelosi has deviated from the "seniority rule". She sidelines the panel's top Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman (CA) and the next in line, Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL). In addition to Pelosi privately criticizing Harman for not being more aggressive on faulty pre-war intelligence and the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program, she made clear earlier this week that she would not pick Hastings with his tainted history of bribery.

Evidently, Pelosi has been cautious about her selection of the leader of the committee that oversees the nation's intelligence agencies, after a widely-perceived political blunder of endorsing Rep. John Murtha (PA) for the Majority Leader post. She got Harman to issue a statement prior to her own about Harman's "full and enthusiastic support" for Reyes.

Nonetheless, as Pelosi attempts to ensure that her nominee is clean and will "ask the tough questions", she risks alienating the Congressional Black Caucus. Not long ago, she removed William Jefferson (LA), who is Black as Hastings is, from the powerful Ways and Means Committee after allegations of corruption. Furthermore, according to the Wall Street Journal, even now Pelosi's choice is facing skepticism of the intelligence community due to Reyes' travels with one of the panel's most senior and controversial Republicans.

Could the analogy of a former press secretary, Rich Galen, that Pelosi is quickly becoming as radioactive as the polonium-210 that poisoned the ex-Russian spy, be a reality? Some in the blogosphere have already begun to call her Pelosium-2007...