Congresswoman Jane Harman pressured to attack

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.thehill.com/news/032504/harman.aspx

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), ranking member on the House Select Committee on Intelligence, is being pressured by three party colleagues on the panel to abandon her long-standing and hard-earned reputation for bipartisanship and inflict as much damage as possible on President Bush over pre-war intelligence.

The Democratic lawmakers, frustrated by Harman’s leadership style, want party leaders to give them a green light to challenging Republicans more aggressively.
Reps. Rush Holt (D-N.J.), Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) say the Intelligence Committee has been paralyzed by Harman’s failure to recognize and counter Republican brazenness.

The disgruntled Democrats say Chairman Porter Goss (R-Fla.) and his GOP colleagues are intent solely on protecting the White House.

While these Democrats say they respect Harman’s quest for comity, they also insist the panel’s effectiveness has been sacrificed for the illusion of harmony.
Reyes told The Hill his party’s leadership is aware of the conflict and he expects leaders to give their answer soon.

[yardwork]

1. This article sounds spun so tight its twisted.

[Wickerman]

2. Apprapo post for your 360th.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

4. LOL!

[xchrom]

3. she won't do it

she's frustrating because she will allow herself to be steam rolled -- and after the damage is done sound brilliant.
but she brings no ammo to the in fighting that sometimes needs to be done.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

5. Harman needs to damage Bush or step down.

We CANNOT have this type of "leadership" in an election year!

[AlCzervik]

6. Jane

If i remember right i think she was being investigated about soem campaign contributions or something like that, it was pretty recent. who knows, maybe she made a deal?

[mitchtv]

7. Jane is a Biden Dem

.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. Harman could end up losing her seat ala Connie Morella...

I always kind of liked Morella. Listening to her constituents was top priority for her. I was sorry that she needed to be unseated to get another democrat in Congress.

[NewJerseyDem]

9. I don't understand

I don't see how the two situations are similar. Harman's a democrat. Unless, you are suggesting a primary challenge, which is unlikely and can't happen this year anyway.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. Similar in that

they're both centrist-style politicians. While a challenge can't occur this year, she's going to set herself up for an easy one if she doesn't take a lefter approach to her positions.

This is exactly what the democratic strategy was in upseating Morella. We desperately needed seats in the House, and VanHollen easily charmed Morella's loyal democratic voters.

But maybe I'm mistaken, as I'm not terribly familiar with Harman. Does she have a fair amount of support from republicans as well as democrats?

[Piperay]

14. Yes, she does have

repub support they are willing to accept her because she will work with them. Harman's district (where I live) is very repub alot of defense plants and Harman is the first moderate (and first Democrat for at least 30 years) we have had here. Since the repubs can work with Harman they don't work to hard to take the district from her, putting miniamal effort or money into trying to defeat her. If Harman became to partisan they would most likely dump enormous amounts of money to take the district back from her. Before Harman got the district we had repukes like B1-Bob Dornan and Dana Rohrbacker "representing" us. :puke:

[Piperay]

10. Jane Harman is my Congresswoman

and what needs to be understood here is that this is a predominately repug area and that the Congresswoman has to walk a very fine line otherwise we will lose her to a repuklican. After this district being held for years and years by repukes Harman managed to wrestle it from them and came in on Clinton's coattails in 92. Harman held it till 98 when she made an ill-fated run for Governor and the repukes once again took the area. The repuke voters here which out number the Democrats are willing to accept her as long as she remains moderate and works with them. I wish that she could take a harder more partisan stanch but if it would endanger her office I would rather keep her than have her replaced by a repuke. When they put repukes into this district, they are the worst of the worst, Bob Dornan represented this area for awhile but he was so bad that even the repukes wanted him out and re-districted him out.

[Hekate]

11. Sometimes you have to let the others do the partisan work...

...that, my friends, is part of politicking. She's needed where she is, and she has to represent all her constituents as best she can. We don't want "B-1 Bob" or his clone back on the California roster.

Live to fight another day...

Hekate

[Bandit]

15. If she is not a Democrat she needs to go. You are suggesting that the

lable is enough. I disagree. She must represent Democratic ideals or leave the party. IMO it is worse to have a Democrat who votes republican all the time than to have a republican there. At least you don't feel a constant betrayal. She needs to shape up or ship out. just my $.02 worth.

[patcox2]

18. You ignore some simple realities.

Many here have no grasp whatever of simple political realities. Each person in Congress has to deal with their district. They are not elected by "democrats," they are elected by the people in their district. And the demographics of the district in most cases decide the election. Thats why out of 435 seats, around 375 are considered "safe." There are simply too many people of one party in those seats for the other party to win, ever. If this woman is in a district that is truly in play, with a republican majority, then she simply has to play it safe. As it says in the Bible, a live dog is better than a dead lion. A moderate dem in office is better than a Kucinich clone who loses the election. Going down in ideologically pure flames does no good to us. If the practical realities of this woman's district are such that she would lose re-election if she attacks Bush, then let a democrat with a safe seat attack, and keep her district democratic. (You do realize that every member of the house is up for re-election?) Its simple common sense. This insane ideological purity crap only comes from people who have never had to deal with the realities of getting elected and staying in office.

[Piperay]

27. It is not just the label, Harman

is a good representative, for one thing she is pro-environment, supports woman's issues etc. and she does not vote republican. When you have had repuke representatives like B-1 Bob Dornan and Dana Rohrbacker (both far far freeper type RW fundies) like I have had you really appreciate someone like Harman and do not want to toss her out, it's not like she is a Zell Miller type at all.

[cybildisobedience]

16. same situation as Daschle

If they're not in a position to do service the Democratic cause as a whole, they shouldn't be in a leadership role. Leave it to someone in a safer district. We shouldn't have to sacrifice this entire issue to save Jane Harmon's political ambitions.

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

24. email her

voice your opinion!!

[Judi Lynn]

12. Love the way Alcee Hastings described Sylvestre Reyes, from Texas

Reyes is in a category of members that wanted us to do more body-slams.”
(snip)

Now THAT sounds terrific! Way to go, sir!



Hoping Jane Harman can find a way to land a good, swift kick at the misadministration, anyway.

[w4rma]

17. Grover Norquist: "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape"

...
John Aloysius Farrell, "Rancor becomes top D.C. export: GOP leads charge in ideological war," Denver Post, May 26, 2003: "'We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship,' said Grover Norquist, a leading Republican strategist, who heads a group called Americans for Tax Reform.... 'Bipartisanship is another name for date rape,' Norquist, a onetime adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said, citing an axiom of House conservatives.... These days, Norquist and other conservative activists use the GOP tilt in the legislatures to make life difficult for Democratic members of Congress. On issue after issue - the war on terror, taxes, judicial appointees - Republican leaders in Washington have been getting GOP-controlled legislatures to go on record in support of Bush initiatives. It makes it more difficult for Democrats to explain unpopular votes back home."
...
http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Grover_Norquist

[patcox2]

19. Bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship is stupid.

But walking a fine line to ensure you get re-elected in a majority republican district is just common sense.

[indepat]

20. Comity will get you and our nation s**t on every time

[gulfcoastliberal]

21. Damn Jane Harman

It's dems like Harman who make up the leaderships rubber vertebrae. She is SO WEAK. She is a DINO. She should just retire, she's already wealthy from her family's electronics business (JBL, Inifinity, Harmon-Kardon, etc). Maybe that's what compromises her, who knows?

[bobbieinok]

23. did you read ANY of her constiruents' comments about REALITY??

[gulfcoastliberal]

25. Yes, and This is Why We ALWAYS Lose to the Repugs

If we can't maintain party discipline halfway like the repugs do, they will continue to always walk all over us. We need to write off our so called "leaders" like Daschle and Harman - and their seats - if they are so compromised they appease the repugs just to hang on to power. Maybe the democratic-held California legislature should get a clue from what the repugs are doing and redistrict things more favorably for the party while they still have power the power to do so.

Edit: Spelling & Grammar

[bobbieinok]

26. understand your point , and it's a good one- not sure if I agree

[Piperay]

28. Sure Democrats control the CA Legislature but

the area that Harman represents (my area where I live) is pre-dominantely repub and it is not a matter of trading Harman for another Democrat. We are lucky in this area to have a Democrat, Harman had to fight like hell and run a 2 million dollar campaign to get this district. It was the dirtiest nastiest campaign and there is no way that a Boxer type Democrat could ever get elected here. If Harman goes you can bet we will end up with a far right repug who will take this area hold it the way they did for 30 years before Harman was able to wrest it from them.

What alot of people who aren't from CA don't seem to understand is that while the state has a majority of Democrats and controls all statewide offices (except Governor now), there are still areas here that are real repug strongholds. The repugs hang on to those areas with everything they have and if a Democrat manages to get in that is still no guarantee that the area has now become Democratic. I have lived in this area for over 30 years and Harman has been about the only Democrat to ever represent me in Congress. In fact all the other Congressional districts that surround me have repug Congressional representatives.

As far as re-districting that was done acouple of years ago, so that the next chance is along time away. Re-districting was done under the guidance of our then Democratic Governor Gray Davis who botched it up and made so many compromises and deals that the Democrats didn't end up gaining much of anything.

[NNadir]

22. Go Congressman Holt! He's my Congressman.

Damn I'm proud of him.