Wingnuts everywhere were in full-on froth mode last week as Nancy
Pelosi visited several Middle East nations, including Syria.
Complaints were loud, wide-ranging, and stupid.
According to Joe Conason in Salon:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/04/06/pelosi_syria/
In the New York Post she was accused of "making a date with a
terrorist."
On the NewsMax site she was portrayed as "appeasing dictators in the
Middle East."
In the Washington Post she was ridiculed for attempting to mount a
"shadow presidency."
And on CNN, she was mocked for planting a "big wet kiss" on Assad as a
"publicity stunt."
Meanwhile, Robert F. Turner over at the Wall Street Journal was
apparently drunk enough to ask, "Did Nancy Pelosi commit a felony when
she went to Syria?" http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009908
(In case you were wondering, the answer is no.)
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/50261/
Oddly enough, it turns out that Speaker Pelosi was actually
accompanied by State Department officials on the trip, and as the
Chicago Tribune points out, "if Pelosi really committed foreign policy
flubs of the first order, the State Department is in a position to
confirm as much."
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/04/was_pelosi_unfa.html
The White House certainly received a read-out of what exactly Pelosi
and the foreign leaders said in their meetings.
Significantly, the White House has not openly accused Pelosi of the
foreign-policy missteps the Post had accused her of.
In an e-mail follow-up, (Pelosi spokesman Brendan) Daly wrote:
"WH has not said that because in fact the Speaker did not get the
message wrong -- she included the necessary caveats and did not say or
imply that this was a change in Israel's position."
Even Mitt Romney jumped aboard the bash-Pelosi bandwagon, saying, "Her
going to a state which is without question a sponsor of terror, and
having her picture taken with (Bashar) Assad and being seen in a
headscarf and so forth is sending the wrong signal to the people of
Syria and to the people of the Middle East."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/04/04/romney_assails_democrats_in_washington_on_syria_visit_iraq/
Yes, how dare Pelosi wear a headscarf while visiting the Middle East?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/07/286_laura1.jpg
http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/07/286_laura2.jpg
And how dare she appease Middle Eastern dictators?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/07/286_saudi.jpg
I'm shocked, shocked I tell ya!
Strangely, amidst all this talk of "appeasing dictators" and "making
dates with terrorists," very few people seem to have noted this rather
inconvenient tid-bit: http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/202433
While U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's upcoming visit to Syria has
caused the White House to bristle, a little-publicized rendezvous took
place Sunday between Syria's president and Lancaster County's
congressman.
And though Bush administration officials have been criticizing Pelosi,
it's not clear what role the White House and the U.S. Department of
State played when U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts and two other Republican
congressmen met with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Pitts is a Chester County Republican who represents Lancaster County.
Gabe Neville, Pitts' chief of staff, said Monday the conference
between Assad and the three Republicans was intended to be "low
profile."
"It was done in cooperation with the administration," he said.
And while we're on the subject of inconvenient tid-bits, try this on
for size: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/08/rahall-syria-trip
Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), who traveled last week with Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA) as part of her delegation to the Middle East, said this
morning on C-Span that Pelosi told Bush of the trip to Syria a day
before they left, and Bush did not object.
Rahall said, "The Speaker had met with President Bush in the halls of
the U.S. Capitol just the day before we left and mentioned to him that
we were going to Syria. No response at all from the President."
But... but... surely these things can't be true, or the people
criticizing Nancy Pelosi would be complete and utter hypocrites!
Oh, right.
By EarlG
Democratic Underground
http://www.democraticunderground.com/
Harry
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