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Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Does your past matter? Absolutely.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Does your past matter? Should significant transgressions of your youth — murder, robbery, theft, selling dope — disqualify you for the remainder of your life for some positions of trust? What about adulthood, and with lesser offenses, like for example, being one of seven federal judges in history to be impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives and banished from the bench by the U.S. Senate?
The answer to all is — or should be — yes. Any act committed by a person capable of rational choice, especially an act that conveys a wanton disregard for human life, carries with it a lifelong burden and is a permanent disqualifier for some positions. Armed robbers, for example, should never be allowed to handle other people’s money and I’d never want them to own weapons. Armed robbers rationalize killing innocents before they ever pull a gun on their victim. Bad people,
I feel similarly about people who violate the public trust. Few honors are more sacred in a democracy than the public trust. Those who take an oath to uphold the law, and to work for the betterment of the common good, and then enrich themselves or otherwise dishonor their oath, as former School Supt. Linda Schrenko did, as former Mayor Bill Campbell did, and as former federal judge Alcee Hastings did, should forever forfeit the privilege of holding that trust again.
After being impeached and removed from the federal bench almost 20 years ago, Hastings was elected to Congress from Florida. The charge against him was conspiring to solicit bribes from criminal defendants. He was acquitted at trial, but Congress found the charges credible and he was tossed from the bench. But, as is their right, voters elected him to Congress. Bad choice, but voters have the right to set the bar for public service as low as they choose when picking their own representative.
Hastings rises to national interest now because there’s a a real possibility that incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi will make him head of the House Intelligence Committee. The woman who would normally be in line for the job, California Rep. Jane Harman, is insufficiently far to the left for many Democrats and, besides, she and Pelosi are political adversaries. The Black Caucus is pushing Hastings, who ranks second to Harman on the committee.
Pelosi has blown it once in backing Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania for majority leader, a pick rejected by her caucus. If she picks Hastings now — a decision will come before January — here’s a prediction: Democrats will not keep the House in 2008. The country will not tolerate an impeached federal judge as the U.S. House’s chief keeper of state secrets.
