Shock: Pelosi’s new intel chair wants more troops in Iraq
Allahpundit

The best part? This is the guy she picked over Alcee “Sorry, Haters” Hastings. Turns out he’s a wingnut who believes, for whatever crazy reason, that it’d be a better idea to liquidate the death squads instead of turning the country over to them.

Wingnuts.

“We’re not going to have stability in Iraq until we eliminate those militias, those private armies,” Reyes said. “We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq … We certainly can’t leave Iraq and run the risk that it becomes [like] Afghanistan” was before the 2001 invasion by the United States…

When asked how many additional troops he envisioned sending to Iraq, Reyes replied: “I would say 20,000 to 30,000—for the specific purpose of making sure those militias are dismantled, working in concert with the Iraqi military…

Actually, never mind what I said about the best part. This is the best part, because this is what’s going to have the nutroots throwing fits:

Reyes added that he was “very clear” about his position to Pelosi when she chose him over two rivals — Rep. Jane Harman of California and Rep. Alcee Hastings — to head the critical intelligence post…

[W]hen asked what he told Pelosi about his thinking on Iraq, Reyes replied: “What I said was, we can’t afford to leave there. And anybody who says, we are going pull out our troops immediately, is being dishonest …

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Harman Starts Looking Better To The Left?
Ed Morrissey

One has to wonder what strategy Nancy Pelosi has decided to pursue in the next session of Congress. After a couple of major missteps in the days following the Democratic Party's midterms successes, she has managed to transform what had they described as a mandate for clean government and an end to the American involvement in Iraq into a serious muddle. First she champions two men for key leadership posts that have serious questions of corruption in their backgrounds. Now the man she selected to replace one of them wants to back the Pentagon and expand the American commitment in Iraq (via Hot Air):

In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a stepped up effort to “dismantle the militias." ...

... “We’re not going to have stability in Iraq until we eliminate those militias, those private armies,” Reyes said. “We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq … We certainly can’t leave Iraq and run the risk that it becomes [like] Afghanistan” was before the 2001 invasion by the United States. ...

It gets better, as Newsweek makes clear in the article. Not only does Silvestre Reyes align more or less with John McCain on Iraq, it turns out that he told Pelosi how he viewed the issue before she selected him to replace Alcee Hastings, who replaced Nancy Harman. Reyes said that he made his position "very clear" to the Speaker-elect during their discussions on the subject. ...