Pelosi Picks Reyes to Head Panel on Intelligence

Pelosi Picks Reyes to Head Panel on Intelligence: "Incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi today named Representative Silvestre Reyes of Texas to become next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, ending weeks of closed-door lobbying and public posturing among top candidates for the post.

By choosing Mr. Reyes, a Vietnam veteran and former Border Patrol agent who has served on the committee since 2001, Ms. Pelosi passed over the panel's top Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman of California, with whom Ms. Pelosi has long feuded.

...

'His appreciation for the dangers inherent in the operation of secret activities in a democracy ensures that he will be a zealous protector of the civil liberties that define us as a nation,' she said.

Unlike Ms. Harman, Mr. Reyes voted against the congressional resolution authorizing the United States to go to war in Iraq."

(Via NY Times.)