Oh this AIPAC Jane saga just gets better and better, well, unless you're AIPAC Jane. Who knew she harbored hopes of an Ambassadorship? I'd send her to Lesotho in a heart beat in the hopes of you know getting a real Democrat to represent the California 36th Congressional District but what did Lesotho ever do to us to deserve such a shrill?

From the New York Times:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that she had been briefed by the Bush administration "maybe three years ago" that Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, had been picked up on a wiretapped phone conversation as part of a government investigation.

Ms. Pelosi said she had been barred from telling Ms. Harman about the recorded call.

She also said Ms. Harman was apparently not a target of the surveillance, and insisted that the incident did not factor in her decision to deny her colleague the top post on the House Intelligence Committee after Democrats won the majority in 2006.

That decision is still a source of friction between the two Californians, who are both powerful and wealthy women, and yet in other ways as different as the districts they represent. Ms. Pelosi's district covers most of San Francisco, while Ms. Harman represents parts of the West Side of Los Angeles and beach areas to the south.

Their tussle over the committee post was back in the spotlight this week after reports that Ms. Harman had been secretly recorded agreeing to intercede on behalf of pro-Israel lobbyists, who were under investigation for violations of the Espionage Act, in exchange for help in pressing Ms. Pelosi to give her the intelligence job.

While the two women do not display overt hostility, Ms. Harman seems to have never quite gotten over the slight. Colleagues say that since Ms. Pelosi, 69, thwarted her ambitions for a more prominent role on security issues, Ms. Harman, 63, has grown weary of Congress and has been eyeing a post in the Obama administration, perhaps as an ambassador.

Those hopes may be clouded by revelations about the taped call. Ms. Harman has forcefully denied the accusation that she offered to aid the operatives for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as Aipac.

While Speaker Pelosi suggests that AIPAC Jane wasn't the target of the surveillance but in 2005 the FBI was in fact investigating whether AIPAC Jane, an outspoken supporter of Israel, may have improperly influenced an ongoing Justice Department probe of AIPAC. In October 2006, AIPAC Jane dismissed the investigation as "laughable" yet here we are again and I am pretty sure no one is laughing even if the amusement factor is quite high.

Even more bizarre, if that's the right word, according to David Corn over at Mother Jones who finds that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez isn't exactly denying the most recent allegations against him, that is that he killed the FBI inquiry because AIPAC Jane, then the ranking Democrat on the intelligence committee, could help the Bush administration defend its use of warrantless wiretaps. Quid quo pros galore. In Washington of all places.

I think it fair to note that Jane Harman is a player, a heavy hitter in Washington politics and even if I find her brand of blue dog politics less than savory, it doesn't bring much satisfaction asking whatever happened to AIPAC Jane. Or does it?