Will Democrat Alcee Hastings (an impeached judge) be head of the intel committee?

Question

How can the Dems back this appointment? (Or vote for this guy?) He's been found guilty of accepting bribes and perjury.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcee_Hastings

Those Republicans resigned after being caught. This Democrat is being appointed after being caught. Where's the hypocrisy in that?

Answer 1

In American society, at least in theory, no citizen is above the law,
that includes Alcee Hastings, a judge impeached in disgrace.
A lawyer and a judge of the circuit court of Broward County, Florida, and US District Court judge for the Southern District of
Florida (1979 to 1989)
His charges were for corruption and perjury, a reprehensible offense, by itself.
And then Hastings was elected to the House of Representatives
in 1992.
He is also a standing member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, in July 2004

His impeachment was remanded back to the Senate by Judge Stanley Sporkin after hastings filed suit claimimg that his impeachment trial was invalid because he was tried by a Senate committee, not in front of the full Senate.
He had been acquitted in a criminal trial.
But the Supreme Court ruled in a similar case regarding
Judge Walter Nixon, who had been impeached and removed, that the courts had no jurisdiction to review Senate impeachment procedures.
A lower court found crucial distinctions between the two cases, since Nixon had been convicted in a criminal trial and a certified record of his conviction was available to submit to the full Senate
as probative evidence of his conduct.
Hastings, on the other hand had been found not guilty in a criminal trial, so Sporkin ruled he had a right to trial by the full Senate, and not just by a committee.
Sporkin stayed his ruling pending Supreme Court review.
The jurisdictional issue prevailed on appeal, and Hastings
impeachment and removal were re-instated.
The Senate had the option to forbid Hastings from ever seeking federal office again, when it removed him, but did not do so.

Hastings exact charges was for (1989) impeachment by the House of Representatives for bribery and perjury.
The Democratic controlled Senate convicted Hastings of accepting
$150,000.00 bribe in 1981, in exchange for a lenient sentence and of perjury in his testimony about the case.
Hastings became only the sixth Judge in the history of
impeachment proceedings in the United States to be removed from office, by the United States Senate.

Now, back to the original question, to let Hastings continue on any federal office capacity is ludicris.
By allowing him to continue to hold office, it sends out the wrong message to other US citizens who may think if Hastings can get away with committing a set of felonies, I guess I can too, and it may encourage further corruption and perjury.
The penalties on these felonies should be made stiffer, harsher penalties and fines, even incarceration, if need be.

Hastings don't even qualify to be a city dog catcher in my
opinion.
All his retirement and perquisites should be suspended.
indefinitely.

And the bar association should revoke his law license, permanently.


Thats my message. Good luck.



Donald H. Sites
[e-mail]

Answer 2

Their inate hypocrisy only acknowledges the faults and indictments of their opposition.

Answer 3

Was this the one that Mark Foley would have been chair of had he not resigned...or no...maybe its was Duke Cunningham..

Answer 4

She won't get it.