Rep. Jane Harman on FBI hotseat over Israeli-linked PAC investigation

Time says the FBI is investigating whether or not the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Harman broke the law to get Harman reappointed as the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.

Given that Harman is well-known in politics as a war hawk, and arguably even “neocon-lite,” I can’t see this as being anything but good news for putting the neocon movement on one more bit of notice.

Of course, with the election coming up, for Democrats, it raises the Iraq issue in a less-than-ideal way, pointing out the party’s lack of unity on Iraq, indeed its papering over of the issue.

Time also puts the issue into larger context:

The case is a spin-off of a probe that has already led to charges under the Espionage Act against two AIPAC lobbyists, whose case is still pending, and to a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence for former Defense Intelligence Agency official Lawrence A. Franklin.

In this same investigation, the Justice Department has previously suggested that AIPAC had questionable motives in trying to help a valued government contact remain in a sensitive national security post. The Justice Department alleges in its indictment of Franklin that he asked one of the two AIPAC lobbyists to “put in a good word” for him in seeking assignment to the National Security Council. The document says the AIPAC official noted that such a job would put Franklin "by the elbow of the President" and said he would “do what I can.”

As to whether House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was off-put by the lobbying strong-arm or acceded to it, we shall see, I guess.