Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi's move today to block Rep. Alcee Hasting's bid to become chairperson of the House Intelligence Committee was a shrewd move to regain control of her caucus after her previous unsuccessful attempt to install Rep. Jack Murtha as Majority Leader.

Members of her staff had said she favored Mr. Hastings.  But his position was weakened because he was impeached and removed as a federal judge in 1989 in connection with a bribery case.  He was subsequently acquitted in the criminal case.

Mrs. Pelosi's allies said she remained committed to selecting someone other than Representative Jane Harman of California, who is the ranking Democrat on the panel.  Two possible compromise candidates are a committee member, Silvestre Reyes of Texas, and Sanford D. Bishop Jr. of Georgia.

Mrs. Pelosi and Ms. Harman have long had a contentious relationship, and Mrs. Pelosi has told colleagues that she is angry that Ms. Harman has not used her position to attack the administration more directly on issues like the faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq and the domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency.

Ms. Harman has earned the support of the Blue Dog Democrats, a coalition of conservative and moderate Democrats.

On the other hand, her decision risked alienating the influential Congressional Black Caucus, which had strongly backed Mr. Hastings.


Pelosi is making the right call.  When two factions of your coalition demand spoils, or else, the best decision is often to ignore both of them, and install your own candidate.  That way, everyone's equally pissed off, and no one got what they wanted without making you happy first.

Hastings may have been acquitted of the bribery scandal that cost him a federal judgeship, and may be a talented legislator, but his ethical lapses would have made his appointment as chair the greatest gift Nancy could have given the GOP.  Every time the Dems tried to talk national security, the GOP would have tossed back "impeached bribe-taker, Democrat Intelligence Chairman, Alcee Hastings".

And Harman, for whatever reason, decided over the past four years that the best thing she could do as a liberal hawk from California was roll over for every crazy national security idea the Bush Administration sent her way.  She simply does not deserve the chair.

So now we wait for Speaker Pelosi's pick.