- Alcee Hastings
Infobox_Congressman
name = Alcee Hastings
date of birth = birth date and age|1936|09|05
place of birth =Altamonte Springs, Florida
state =Florida
district = 23rd
term_start = January 3, 1993
preceded = None (District Created After 1990 Census)
succeeded = Incumbent
religion =African Methodist Episcopal
party = Democrat
spouse = Divorced
occupation= attorney, judge
alma_mater=Howard University ,Florida A&M University
residence=Miramar, Florida Alcee Lamar Hastings (born September 5, 1936) is a member of the
United States House of Representatives representing ushr|Florida|23| ( [http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/fl23_109.gifmap] ).Born in
Altamonte Springs, Florida , Hastings was educated atFisk University inNashville, Tennessee ;Howard University inWashington, D.C. ; andFlorida A&M University . He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1970, losing in the first primary toLawton Chiles .A Representative since 1993 and a Democrat, Hastings was a lawyer and judge of the circuit court of
Broward County, Florida and of theUnited States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (1979 to 1989). He was impeached and removed from office for corruption andperjury . He is only the sixth federal judge to be impeached and removed from office in American history.Impeachment
In 1981, Hastings was charged with accepting a $150,000 bribe in exchange for a lenient sentence and a return of seized assets for 21 counts of
racketeering by Frank and Thomas Romano, and of perjury in his testimony about the case. He was acquitted by a jury after his alleged co-conspirator, William Borders, refused to testify in court (resulting in a jail sentence for Borders).In 1988, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives took up the case, and Hastings was impeached for bribery and
perjury by a vote of 413-3. Voters to impeach included Democratic RepresentativesNancy Pelosi ,Steny Hoyer ,John Conyers andCharles Rangel . He was then convicted in 1989 by theUnited States Senate , becoming the sixth federal judge in the history of the United States to be removed from office by the Senate. The vote on the first article was 69 for and 26 opposed, providing five votes more than the two-thirds of those present that were needed to convict. The first article accused the judge of conspiracy. Conviction on any single article was enough to remove the judge from office. The Senate vote cut across party lines, with Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont voting to convict his fellow party member, and Arlen Specter voting to acquit. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE3DD163BF932A15753C1A96F948260 "Hastings Ousted As Senate Vote Convicts Judge"] , "The New York Times ", October 21, 1989. Accessed April 10, 2008.]The Senate had the option to forbid Hastings from ever seeking federal office again, but did not do so. Alleged co-conspirator, attorney William Borders went to jail again for refusing to testify in the impeachment proceedings, but was later given a full pardon by President
Bill Clinton on his last day in office. [ [http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1066080426784 Law.com - The Power of the Pardon ] ]Hastings filed suit in federal court claiming that his impeachment trial was invalid because he was tried by a Senate committee, not in front of the full Senate, and that he had been acquitted in a criminal trial. Judge
Stanley Sporkin ruled in favor of Hastings, remanding the case back to the Senate, but stayed his ruling pending the outcome of an appeal to the Supreme Court in a similar case regarding JudgeWalter Nixon , who had also been impeached and removed. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/junkie/links/hastings091892.htm Senate Conviction of Hastings Is Reversed by Judge Sporkin] ]Sporkin found some "crucial distinctions" [ [http://classes.lls.edu/archive/manheimk/fedcts/hastings1.html Alcee HASTINGS, Plaintiff ] ] between Nixon's case and Hastings', specifically, that Nixon had been convicted criminally, and that Hastings was not found guilty by two-thirds of the committee who actually "tried" his impeachment in the Senate. He further added that Hastings had a right to trial by the full Senate.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled in "
Nixon v. United States " that the federal courts have no jurisdiction over Senate impeachment matters, so Sporkin's ruling was vacated and Hastings' conviction and removal were upheld.Candidacy for state office
In 1990, Hastings attempted to make a political comeback by running for the office of Florida Secretary of State, campaigning on a platform of legalizing
casino s. In a three-way Democratic primary, he placed second with 313,758 votes, or 33%, behind newspaper columnistJim Minter 's 357,340 votes (38%) and ahead of formerKu Klux Klan Grand Dragon John Paul Rogers ' 275,370 votes (29%). In the runoff, which saw a large dropoff in turnout, Hastings lost to Minter in a landslide, 300,022 votes to 146,375. Minter would go on to lose the general election to incumbent RepublicanJim Smith .Congressional career
Hastings was elected to the
United States House of Representatives in 1992, representingFlorida's 23rd district . After placing second in the initial Democratic primary for the post, he scored an upset victory over State RepresentativeLois J. Frankel in the runoff and went on to easily win election in the heavily-Democratic district. He did not face a serious election challenge until 2008 when Republicans managed to recruit Marion Thorpe, M.D., recentChief Medical Officer of theState of Florida , to run against him.He is a member of the
Congressional Black Caucus and was elected President of the Parliamentary Assembly of theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in July 2004. Today, as a Senior Democratic Whip, Hastings is an influential member of the Democratic leadership. Congressman Hastings is also a member of the powerful House Rules Committee and is a senior Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). On the HPSCI, Hastings is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.He was one of the 31 who voted in the House not to count the
electoral vote s fromOhio in the 2004 presidential election. [ [http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll007.xml] ]House Intelligence Committee controversy
After the 2006 United States House of Representatives elections, Hastings attracted controversy after it was reported that incoming House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi might appoint him as head of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Pelosi reportedly favored Hastings instead of the ranking DemocratJane Harman due to political differences and support for Hastings by theCongressional Black Caucus . [ [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061201/ap_on_go_co/house_intelligence] ]On November 28, 2006, Pelosi announced that Hastings would not be the Committee's chairman, [ [http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-11-28T204055Z_01_N28275992_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-USA-CONGRESS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22 http://today.reuters.com] ] and later she chose
Silvestre Reyes instead. While Congressman Hastings was passed over to chair the committee he became chair of a sub-committee.Controversial comments regarding Sarah Palin
On September 24, 2008, Hastings came under fire for controversial comments made regarding Republican Vice Presidential candidate
Sarah Palin . Hastings, speaking inWashington D.C. to a conference sponsored by the National Jewish Democratic Council, said "If Sarah Palin isn’t enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention. Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much [sic] about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through." [http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/florida-congres.html]On September 29, 2008, Hastings issued a tepid apology via a written statement; "I regret the comments I made last Tuesday that were [sic] not smart and certainly not relevant to hunters or sportsmen." "The point I made, and will continue to make, is that the policies and priorities of a McCain-Palin administration would be anathema to most African Americans and Jews." "I regret that I was not clearer and apologize to Governor Palin, my host where I was speaking, and those who my comments may have offended." [http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/29/black-florida-congressman-apologizes-for-comments-about-palin/]
Position on 2008 "bailout"
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