Is the Nominee for the House Intel Committee a Michael Brown?

It appears that Nancy "the Stumbler" Pelosi has picked a real loser to chair the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Silvestre Reyes did so poorly during questioning that even CNN, normally friendly to Dems, has an online article with the title Incoming House Intelligence Chief Botches Easy Intel Quiz. Reyes was asked about two key groups embroiled in the Mid-East violence: Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. Unfortunately, Reyes was not able to ask the audience or phone a friend and "botched" them. According to the article:

When asked by CQ National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam -- Sunni or Shiite -- Reyes answered "they are probably both," then ventured "Predominantly -- probably Shiite."

That is wrong. Al Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden as a Sunni organization and views Shiites as heretics.

Reyes could also not answer questions put by Stein about Hezbollah, a Shiite group on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations that is based in Southern Lebanon.

As is common in Washington, Stein provides a baseball analogy:

"If you're the baseball commissioner and you don't know the difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox, you don't know baseball," Stein said. "You're not going to have the respect of the people you work with."

Of course this is much more serious than baseball. It involves our national security. George Bush took a lot of heat for nominating a former horse trainer to head FEMA. Failures in both jobs can cost lives - and a lot of them. Pelosi needs to take some heat for nominating one so ignorant of the groups that threaten the U.S. and its allies. Reyes should step aside from this nomination and get off the Intel Committee. This is not a position you want "on the job training" for. Pelosi needs to find somebody competent to head this committee or she may find herself looking down at a smoldering hole in the ground muttering "You're doing a heckuva job Reyes".