Word: harman
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...potentially divisive race for Democrats just as they are trying to get their footing. It's particularly complicated for Pelosi, who is in the midst of another contest that could irritate moderate Democrats, as she is planning to replace the current head of the House Intelligence Committee Jane Harman, a hawkish California congresswoman (Pelosi says the post has a term limit, but Harman insists the previous Democratic Leader, Richard Gephardt, had promised her she would get to continue as the top Democrat on the committee...
Filling the exceedingly sensitive post of House Intelligence Committee chairman will be a good test of how Pelosi works. Her fellow Californian Jane Harman, its ranking member, wants the job, but Pelosi doesn't particularly like Harman, so speculation is that Pelosi could go to the next in line, Florida's Alcee Hastings. That would please the black caucus, but there's no small political problem in the fact that in 1989 Hastings was impeached by the (Democratic) House and removed by the (Democratic) Senate from his federal judgeship for conspiring to take a $150,000 bribe (although...
...quotes from world leaders on its website: "The special relationship between the United States and Israel is as strong as it is because of your [AIPAC's] fidelity to that partnership..." But congressional sources say Pelosi has been infuriated by pressure from some major donors lobbying on behalf of Harman. In a story touching on tensions between Pelosi and Harman, an alternative California publication, LA Weekly, reported in May that Harman "had some major contributors call Pelosi to impress upon her the importance of keeping Jane in place. According to these members, this tactic, too, hasn't endeared Harman...
...congressional source tells TIME that the lobbbying for Harman has included a phone call several months ago from entertainment industry billionaire and major Democratic party contributor Haim Saban. A Saban spokeswoman said he could not be reached for comment. A phone call pushing for a particular member's committee assignment might be unwelcome, but it would not normally be illegal on its own. And it is unclear whether Saban - who made much of his fortune with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers children's franchise - knew that lobbying Pelosi might be viewed by others as part of a larger alleged plan...
...Saban has donated at least $3,000 to Harman's campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records, and the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, which he sponsors at the prestigious Brookings Institution, boasts Harman among its biggest fans. "When the Saban Center talks, I listen," Harman said at a Saban Center briefing in February on U.S. strategy in Iraq. Harman quipped that, in order to attend the session at Brookings, she had to "blow off" a senior intelligence official's appearance before a House committee...