When it became apparent that the Democrats had taken control of the House after this month's election, Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi stood in front of the cameras pledged to make this next Congress "the most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history."

The "honest, ethical" formulation was last uttered by President-elect Bill Clinton, who then proceeded to have one of the most dishonest and unethical administrations in U.S. history -- one in which he was impeached for lying to a grand jury.

Common sense would suggest that one stay away from that particular formulation in the future, but Republicans aren't the only tone-deaf party in this country.

Which leads us to the hotly anticipated decision on who will lead the House Intelligence Committee under the "honest, ethical" Democrat Congress. Jane Harman of California is currently the ranking member on the committee, but she's much too sane (but still a liberal) when it comes to the military and national security and has had some amorphous falling-out with Speaker-elect Pelosi.

The current No. 2 Democrat on that committee is Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida. Hastings was a federal judge before he was impeached by the a Democrat-run House (Pelosi voted to impeach him) and convicted by the Senate on charges that he conspired to accept a $150,000 bribe to guarantee a lenient sentence for a mobster.

The Wall Street Journal's Political Diary reports that Pelosi is facing pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus (all of them Democrat) to name Hastings to the post. That would be a political disaster for the Democrats (not a bad thing) and for the Congress (a bad thing) because you can bet that the executive branch isn't going to want to share the nation's most important secrets with a man who has shown that he can be bought.

Hastings supporters have pointed out that he was actually acquitted in a criminal trial before being impeached and convicted by Congress.

Using that logic, I think Pelosi should make a bold move. Does the head of the House Intelligence Committee actually have to be an elected member of the House? Is there some way to give the job to O.J. Simpson. After all, he was acquitted by a criminal jury (intentionally ambiguous) of two counts of murder before being found liable by a civil jury using a lower standard of proof.

O.J. for the House Intelligence Committee -- he's managed to maintain a lie for nearly a decade. And even when he does "confess," it's only a sort of confession. I can picture O.J. leaking now to the New York Times: "I'm not saying that we do have a program that listens in on international phone calls between suspected terrorists, but if we did..."

*UPDATE* I can't make this stuff up! It turns out that "honest, ethical" Bill Clinton pardoned Hastings' co-conspirator in the last-minute push for political payback at the end of his second term. This is making the GOP's corruption issues look like amateur hour.