Jane Harman - Her Pro-War, Pro-Arms Record

Wow, Jane Harman is loaded. After learning of this fact, I'm really puzzled about Harman's toadying up to military contractor interests: it's pretty clear she doesn't have to do it to get campaign funding, so why does she do it? Could be she figures why spend her own money if she can spend theirs instead, but she's worth upwards of $200 million, so a million or two to fend off a primary challenger is expendible chump-change for her.

So, she can afford to be independent and not do Lockheed Martin et al's bidding so often, but choses to do so anyway.

That would be distressing for any member of Congress to be tied in so closely to those who profit from war, but it's particularly worrisome because we're talking about the Democrat in line to become the next chair of the House Intelligence Committee, at least when you look strictly at rank. The rumor is, though, that Harman will be passed over as House Intelligence Committee Chair. The next in line is Alcee Hastings, who got impeached and convicted in the Senate for conspiring to extort a $150K bribe while a federal judge. I think he should be passed over as well, but we'll have to see what happens.

In any case, I think it would be a good idea for the Dem's to skip over Harman for head of the Intel Committee. Despite her sounding pretty reasonable of late, Jane Harman showed in the lead up to the war how blindly gung-ho she can be when it comes to going to war.