Congressman Will Hurd must remain on the House Intelligence Committee. He brings intelligence expertise and patriotic virtue to a committee in desperate need of both.
I raise this issue in light of the report on Tuesday by the Washington Examiner‘s Susan Ferrechio and David Drucker. House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy may move Jim Jordan onto the Intelligence Committee in preparation for escalating impeachment hearings. “Mike Conaway and Will Hurd, both of Texas,” Ferrechio and Drucker observe, “are not running for another term and could be among those McCarthy bumps” to make room for Jordan.
But if McCarthy is going to keep anyone at House Intelligence, it should be Hurd.
Yes, Chairman Adam Schiff seems committed to turning the committee into a partisan joke. And yes, Republicans have a legitimate interest in employing their most talented inquisitors to balance out Democrats. But we need to remember that the House Intelligence Committee’s role isn’t to encourage the partisan whims of any one moment. The committee exists to supervise the intelligence community’s 17 services.
Hurd is extremely well-suited to that job for two reasons.
First off, Hurd is a former intelligence professional. A nine-year CIA veteran, he served as an operations officer in South Asia. Although his precise activities remain classified, we can assume that his fluent Urdu was put to use on the streets of Islamabad and beyond. That is dangerous work, deserving of our respect. But that experience will also have empowered Hurd to better sense when visiting intelligence community officials are playing Congress for their own bureaucratic ends. And he will have been able to assess whether intelligence activities are designed and effected to achieving necessary missions at proportionate risk. In short, Hurd’s experience will have made him much better at his committee role.
Second, Hurd values patriotism more than partisanship.
We saw this during former special counsel Robert Mueller’s testimony before Congress. Where the vast majority of House Democrats and Republicans sought to score cheap political points with Mueller, Hurd asked serious questions pertinent to national security. That’s what the people deserve from those sworn to serve them and the nation.
Kevin McCarthy faces a moment of truth. But if he trashes Hurd in favor of Jordan, he’ll show where his priorities lie.
