The New Republic

That is pretty bad. Rush Holt is thinking "I knew that one". Thank God Reyes isn't the President - we could not afford to have such ignorance in the White House, that's for sure. On the other hand, in 2002 Reyes knew that the case for war with Iraq was full of holes -- so maybe he knows something after all. On that one, he was smarter than TNR anyway.

- purcellneil

December 12, 2006 at 9:45am

Good god. Is it too late to choose another chair?

- bouche

December 12, 2006 at 10:45am

This is the guy who is chair of the Intelligence committee? And he doesn't know about Hezbollah? How the hell can so many stupid people get elected to Congress? Just what test do you have to fail to get that job?

- blackton

December 12, 2006 at 11:01am

This is only one of several disturbing revelations in regards to politicians' knowledge about al-Qaida and Islam. The GOP Congress of 2002-06 seemed to be full of ignorants regarding Islam, and even President Bush seemed to be void to tenets of and nuances within Islam (considering it's similar to not understanding the theological differences between catholics, protestants and orthodox christians.) Somebody should ask him about hizbollah (shia) and Hamas (sunni) as well. And heret I thought the sober grown-ups were taking over.

- hustveit

December 12, 2006 at 11:01am

Sorry, the last bit was meant, ask President Bush.

- hustveit

December 12, 2006 at 11:02am

When you think of it it's quite astounding - The Axis of Evil 2002 Iraq (predominently Shia but run by a Sunni elite) Iran (shia) North Korea (officially atheist) And al-Qaida - strict sunni, anti-shia.

- hustveit

December 12, 2006 at 11:05am

as bad as it gets. I get tired of all the endless hand wringing at TNR, but this is cause for major concern.

- mpatrickhendri

December 12, 2006 at 11:09am

Or how about Syria's (Sunni Baathist) support of Hezbollah (Shiite fundamentalists) or the grand Syria/Iran (Sunni + Shiite) TNR pushes.

- Yminale

December 12, 2006 at 12:40pm

Most House members and probably most Senators too are spokesmodels. Their staff are the ones who know stuff. Actually, it's the committee staff who have to know things. The typical member of Congress is a blow-dried airhead whose understanding of policy is superficial and based on summaries handed to them or (more likely) read aloud by underlings who are paid to read. Why is anyone surprised about this?

- stgla

December 12, 2006 at 12:51pm

You are correct that the "typical" member is an idiot. But the hope would be that when choosing committee chairmen the party would choose from among the minority of congressmen who actually know what the hell they're doing... at least on the issue they are responsible for. This is a disaster. There are no other words to describe it. Of course then Purcell reminded us that our president's knowledge challenges Reyes... and that's supposed to make me feel better? Maybe MP is right on this one. The party obviously isn't taking the issue seriously enough for them to choose a nitwit like Reyes over Harman (whatever you think of her) or other qualified candidates.

- achester99

December 12, 2006 at 1:01pm

I think even committee chairmen are very superficial, even the good ones. That's the radical part, that they can probably do an ok job without any knowledge of details. (Then again, they can kill of thousands of Americans, spend billions from our treasury, and send an entire region of the world into a tailspin of violence and chaos, like George W. Bush did). I was in then chairman Lee Hamilton's office one day briefing him on an important issue regarding arms trade legislation and he just said, "just tab the page and highlight the passage that says..." assuming that his pre-ordained conclusion was somewhere in the report. They're nearly all anti-intellectuals who are full of themselves and too busy playing politics to worry about the substance of policy.

- stgla

December 12, 2006 at 1:10pm

This kills me to admit: on an earlier thread I debated with Chan his dogged insistence that Jane Harman and only Jane Harman should be named Intelligence Committee Chair. My position was ABH--anyone but Hastings. Silly me. Chan--what can I say? You were right. Considering Reyes' nepotism and his ignorance of basic facts, there was a right answer; you had it, and Pelosi and I did not.

- JackR

December 12, 2006 at 1:28pm

Spent more than a few years working for the Senate Majority Leader, and staff rules! Most of these clowns can't even read words bigger than two sylables (sp?-lol)long. After all, they are lawyers who couldn't get real jobs..

- Icewiz

December 12, 2006 at 1:31pm

The journalist -Jeff Stein- who keeps asking politicians these questions almost deserves the Pulitzer for this simple exercise in how many politicians have unfairly been given the benefit of the doubt. Some reporter should ask Senator McCain -the presumptive 44th president- about al-Qaida, in reagrds to Shiites and Sunni-muslims. After all, it was he who said he'd gather sunnis and shiites together and tell them to "cut the bullsh*t". I'd be curious to hear quite possibly next Commander-in-Chief be asked some very basic, straight-forward questions about the WoT. No-more of this talking-points-sloganeering, just basic questions that demand actual knowledge about the enemy (in the spirit of Mr. Colbert when he asked the a 10 Commandment-loving GOP Congressman to name the 10 commandments, thereby exposing the guy as a hack and hypocrite.) Ask Romney, Giuliani, Hillary, Kerry etc as well. Everyone who answer's incorrectly gets disqualified (though now they're all probably shitting the books.)

- hustveit

December 12, 2006 at 1:51pm

One would have hoped that, despite the vacuity of the average congressman, the Speaker would have enough brains to choose a chairman with at least some brains (Harman), instead of someone who must have been asleep at all the Intelligence Committee meetings he attended. These are best choices Pelosi has to fix all of our problems in the world? Keep it up, Nancy: Ready, Fire, Aim! (Or something like that)

- dlrocdoc

December 12, 2006 at 1:53pm

. . . as y'all might have noticed by now, but it seems to me that even I would have soaked up a few crucial facts by virtue of sitting on the damn Intel Committee for years! I mean, come on . . . Did he plug his ears too? How non-reading and intellectually incurious do you have to be to maintain ignorance on facts that most 12-year olds probably have a clue about now? Harmon can be grating, but I now think Pelosi's judgment is awry.

- ironyroad

December 12, 2006 at 2:05pm

I agree that the Intel Chair should know that al Qaeda is a radical Sunni organization, that Saddam's regime was ethnically Sunni and not religious, and that Iran and Hezbollah are Shiite. Extra points for understanding the historical origins of the Sunni-Shia chasm, understanding the many sub-sects of each branch of Islam, and relating each to the heavily Muslim regimes from East Asia to Africa (the largest Muslim population in the world is in India, followed by Indonesia and Pakistan). Like I said, I'm not surprised that our key decision makers are superficial airheads who can't keep five thoughts in their brains at once and can't be bothered to read anything but a newspaper headline about themselves or their rivals.

- stgla

December 12, 2006 at 3:13pm

It will be interesting to see if the MSM picks up on the fact that the new Chair of Intelligence is, more or less, an ignoramus. Pelosi is not dumb, so perhaps she selected somebody for their compliance and ability to follow orders rather then their capacity to understand complexity. Given how this Administration does not believe in consulting with Congress, her selection of Reyes may well be to demonstrate that she, too, is just as willing to politicize intelligence as much as Cheney and Bush. But, then, and most likely, I am giving her too much credit, and she is just plain stupid. It's

- jasinvt

December 12, 2006 at 3:55pm

Pelosi's selection of Reyes has to do with internal Democratic baseball, namely, placating the various identity-politics factions. The Democratic Party is not so much a big tent as a big campground spread out along many fault lines. Juggling all these groups and keeping them more or less united would be a challenge for the likes of Sam Rayburn or Tip O'Neill. Pelosi makes it even more daunting because of her miscues--she allowed her personal animus toward Harman to blow this thing up into a monster issue she didn't need. As for the competency of Members of Congress, having worked on the Hill for a number of years I think it's fair to say that most of them are smart enough, and a few are brilliant. The problem is not their intelligence. It's the decline in Congress as an institution. The demands of getting elected, staying elected, and moving up in the hierarchy of the place have become all-consuming. Policymaking is most definitely a distant second. When you add the hyper-active, 24/7, 30 second sound byte nature of the media to the equation, it's not hard to understand why we have so many Members who seem to be vacuous cast members reading their pre-approved lines rather than thinking people trying to make good decisions.

- Claudiusmarcellus

December 12, 2006 at 4:41pm

Please. Someone stop this. If you don't know Hezbullah are Shi'a then you should be chairing a suburban zoning committee but not, of all things on God's green earth, the Intel committee. Where did this clown come from? Did Pelosi talk to him before the selection? Oh, hell - does she even know who's Shi'a and who's Sunni? It's not like we're asking our politicians to explain the differences between the Alawite sect and Twelver Shiism or anything obscure like that. They don't need to master the finer details of Islamic religious thought. But sweet heaven! Such ignorance. He should be ashamed.

- tdneeley

December 12, 2006 at 4:57pm

Look, the guy's just not yet learned how to parry the tough questions. next time he'll use a deft redirect answer and motion to his aides behuind his back to slip him a crib sheet. As in: Q: And what about hezbollah? A: God bless you. Q: Shi'ite or sunni? A: Woody Allen's private life is his own business, as far as I'm concerned. And I think not just our Irish-American friends but any of us would take umbrage at being called a shite anything, as my esteemed colleagues from Massachusetts and New York will attest. Can we all just get along?

- teplukhin

December 13, 2006 at 1:03am

Syria is ruled by Alawites, which is a minor Shiite branch, the country is majority Sunni.

- blackton

December 13, 2006 at 10:03am