A good choice.

Anti-war Rep. to head House intelligence panel

By Richard Cowan

Reuters Friday, December 1, 2006; 3:23 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Texas Rep. Silvestre Reyes, an Iraq war opponent, will become chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee when Democrats take control of Congress in January, Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi said on Friday.

In choosing Reyes, a former border patrol agent and Vietnam War veteran, Pelosi skipped over two more senior Democrats to head a panel that oversees the conduct of U.S. national security policy and counterterrorism efforts.

As I noted in the comments section over at Blanton's and Ashton's, I am pleasantly surprised to hear the Rep. Reyes received the House Intel Chair. I actually met him once at a ceremony commemorating the opening of a new Deployment Center on Fort Bliss. In case you missed my bitching about the heat while I was in El Paso this summer, it was no different on this occasion back in 02'. I was the guidon bearer and was up front out in the sun, while the dignitaries watched seated under tent (which the detail I was on had spent the morning setting up). The Congressman got up to speak and was rather brief, siting his concern for those of us out in the sun. It doesn't sound like much, but I've been to plenty other ceremonies where the guest speaker goes on and on until someone literally fall on their face, or backwards onto the soldiers standing behind them in formation. It's no little thing when a public official shows concern for a soldier, and then actually takes direct action.