Berman likely to head House Foreign Affairs Committee

By Lisa Friedman, Washington Bureau

January 21, 2008

WASHINGTON - Rep. Howard Berman, the Van Nuys Democrat who voted to authorize the invasion of Iraq and was among the last Democrats to withdraw his support from the war, is expected to be named the next chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The current chairman, Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, has announced that he has cancer of the esophagus and will not seek re-election next year.

Last week, the Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor who has led the panel since 2007 quietly named Berman vice chairman of the committee and Democratic leaders acknowledge he is likely to succeed Lantos.

Critics in Berman’s own district have targeted the 13-term Angeleno for his support of the Iraq war. Southern California peace activists said they believe the former labor lawyer who was once arrested protesting South African apartheid has become too conservative for their tastes, and they fear his chairmanship will reflect that.

Foreign policy experts in Washington and elsewhere, meanwhile, said they see Berman, 66, as liberal but pragmatic.

“I think Howard Berman is really from central casting. If you had to design a chair of committee, it would be him,” said UCLA political science professor Steven Spiegel.

“He’s a careful intellectual who explores issues and unusual on the Hill in that he isn’t ideological. He’s very devoted to learning about problems and how to fix them.”

Berman declined interview requests. His spokeswoman said Berman's thoughts are with Lantos' family and he wants to be as helpful as possible to the chairman. to the chairman.

Lobbyists and others in international policy circles, however, already are preparing for a change of command.

A member of the foreign affairs panel since he entered Congress in 1982, Berman is primarily known as a strong supporter of Israel. Early in his career, he wrote legislation funding joint U.S.-Israeli assistance projects in the developing world, and has worked over the years to increase aid to Israel.

But he also backs a two-state solution, has pressed for democratic and economic reforms in Arab countries and last year worked to ease restrictions on humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

M.J. Rosenberg, director of the Washington office of the Israel Policy Forum, which advocates an active U.S. role in promoting an Israeli and Palestinian peace process, called Berman “fair and open-minded.”

“He is one of the most important people on this issue. He is to the right of us on Israel and less critical of the status quo than we are. But he is very intellectually open.” Officials with Arab groups including the Palestine Liberation Organization Mission to the U.S., agreed that Berman is less hawkish than Lantos, but said they don’t expect major shifts in Middle East policy.

On Iran, for example, Emily Blout of the Iranian American Council noted that Berman last year signed onto legislation expanding sanctions against Iran.

The organization has pushed heightened diplomacy.

“He has demonstrated a consciousness of our concerns. I wouldn’t say he’s not willing to listen,” said Emily Blout, the council’s legislative director. Still, she said, “I’m not predicting a big change.”

Those who served with Berman praised his legislative style. Whereas Lantos, who founded the congressional human rights caucus, often expressed outrage over abuses - he called Yahoo officials moral pygmies for handing information over to Chinese authorities that led to a journalist’s arrest - Berman is considered more soft-spoken and low-key.

“He’s a consensus-builder. He’s easy to work with, and he’s not ideological. He’s a very pragmatic politician,” said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, vice-chair of the 9/11 commission who serves as chairman of the international relations committee in the House.

“He is viewed as someone who really does bring a balanced view to foreign policy issues,” said Leon Panetta, who served in the House with Berman before becoming President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff.

“When I was in the Congress and I wanted the straight scoop on what was going on with an issue, Howard was one of the people I went to,” Panetta said. As chairman, he predicted, Berman “won’t play to the kind of Sunday talk show constituency. He won’t go out of his way to antagonize or define an issue.”

James Prince, president of the Democracy Council in Los Angeles that promotes democratic institutions in emerging countries described Berman “a 60s pacifist at heart, but a relative pacifist” who because of his support for Israel struggled with Iraq.

“It’s ‘how do we get out but do it reasonably.’ He’s not going to advocate for a cut and run policy,” Prince said.

A former aide to former Santa Monica Rep. Mel Levine as well as Hamilton, Prince said he has known Berman “since my grandmother used to walk precincts with him and take me along.” He recalled talking to Berman on a flight from Los Angeles to D.C. shortly after Republicans took over the House in 1994. The congressman, Prince recalled, offered to introduce him to meet some of the new GOP leaders.

“They told me, if Howard recommends you as a resource, then you’re a resource for me,” Prince said. “He’s one of the last thoughtful people on Capitol Hill.”

For activists like Jodie Evans of Los Angeles, who co-founded the feminist anti-war group Code Pink, Berman’s oft-praised ability to work across party lines is not necessarily an asset. And when it comes to the Iraq war, Evans said she feels like she barely recognizes the man she has known since Jerry Brown was governor of California.

“I have seen him get more conservative. I mean, we marched with Cesar Chavez together,” she said.

Berman voted for the Iraq war in 2002, and said he believed that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons, and attempting to obtain nuclear weapons. He supported the war longer than almost any House Democrat, voting in 2006 to reject a timetable for pulling out of Iraq.

By 2007 Berman’s views shifted. He voted against the troop surge that sent about 30,000 more soldiers into Iraq and later authored major legislation giving teeth to original Bush administration benchmarks for the war. The bill became a central Democratic plank.

Evans said she sees Berman’s shift as too little too late.

For years when she argued against the wisdom of the war, she said, Berman “just kind of rolled his eyes back, listened to what I had to say and was un-moveable. That’s what happens to me when I meet with Republican members of Congress.”

Still, Evans said, “He’s such a loveable guy. I mean, he’s funny and smart.

I just think he used to be smarter.”

End.

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