by Charles Gordon
February 19, 2007

Someone should tell Nancy Pelosi that playing politics with our national security is not the way a House speaker ought to behave.

Pelosi’s latest move in that direction was making William “the Fridge” Jefferson of Louisiana a member of the House Homeland Security Committee. Yes, that’s the same William Jefferson who’s the subject of a continuing federal corruption investigation. A year-and-a-half ago, subpoenas were served on Jefferson’s office and the FBI found $90,000 in cash stashed in his freezer at home.

Last summer, in the middle of an election year when she was labeling the GOP Congress corrupt, Pelosi removed Jefferson from the Ways and Means Committee. Now, with her party having won the midterm elections, she’s shown her true colors in moving Jefferson to Homeland Security.

Pelosi’s cavalier attitude on national security was also on display when she was reportedly considering Alcee Hastings of Florida to head the House Intelligence Committee. Hastings was a federal district court judge who was charged with accepting a $150,000 bribe in exchange for a lenient sentence for two men who had been convicted of 21 counts of racketeering. He was later impeached by the House, but responded as any self-respecting sociopath would — by running for and then winning a seat in the House.

The ensuing uproar over the prospect of an impeached judge running an intelligence committee forced the new speaker to withdraw his name publicly from consideration. Pelosi’s new choice for the intel committee? Sylvester Reyes. This is the same Sylvester Reyes who, when asked whether Al Qaida was a Shi’ite or a Sunni group, implied he didn’t know the answer and then foolishly blurted out, “Shi’ite.”

Clearly, when it comes to national security (not to mention other matters), it’s time for Nancy Pelosi to grow up and to take the responsibilities of her new job seriously.  Unfortunately for all of us, she may know exactly what she’s doing.