Welcome impeached federal judges turned international election observers!

CalBlog provides word that the leader of the international election monitors who'll be making sure that this November's elections are fair and transparent is Alcee Hastings. He's currently a representative from Florida. In a prior life he was a federal judge.

Oh, by the way, he's a Bush-bashin' Dem who represents Broward County and:

In 1988, The U.S. House of Representatives voted almost unanimously (413-3) to approve 17 articles of impeachment amounting to "high crimes and misdemeanors" against Hastings, who at the time was a federal judge. While sitting on the federal bench, an FBI bribery sting caught Hastings conspiring to obtain a $150,000 bribe in exchange for granting leniency to a pair of convicted racketeers. The Senate convicted Hastings of perjury and conspiracy to take a bribe. He is one of only a handful of judges ever to be impeached in the history of the U.S.

See their post for more. See also the earlier post "Welcome UN Observers!".