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WaPo on Pelosi

By Michael Weiss / April 6, 2007

What's more worrisome — at least to me — than Pelosi's politics is her IQ. She's a twit. How did she think she'd possibly pull something like this off? Imagine Newt Gingrich trying to establish peace with Saddam Hussein in 1998, fresh off Clinton's aerial bombardment campaign of Iraq. Can you picture it clearly? How about the probable reaction of les bien-pensants?

The Washington Post editorial board gets it right:

Ms. Pelosi was criticized by President Bush for visiting Damascus at a time when the administration — rightly or wrongly — has frozen high-level contacts with Syria. Mr. Bush said that thanks to the speaker's freelancing Mr. Assad was getting mixed messages from the United States. Ms. Pelosi responded by pointing out that Republican congressmen had visited Syria without drawing presidential censure. That's true enough — but those other congressmen didn't try to introduce a new U.S. diplomatic initiative in the Middle East. "We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace," Ms. Pelosi grandly declared.

Never mind that that statement is ludicrous: As any diplomat with knowledge of the region could have told Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Assad is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment is not peace with Israel but heading off U.N. charges that he orchestrated the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The really striking development here is the attempt by a Democratic congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president. Two weeks ago Ms. Pelosi rammed legislation through the House of Representatives that would strip Mr. Bush of his authority as commander in chief to manage troop movements in Iraq. Now she is attempting to introduce a new Middle East policy that directly conflicts with that of the president. We have found much to criticize in Mr. Bush's military strategy and regional diplomacy. But Ms. Pelosi's attempt to establish a shadow presidency is not only counterproductive, it is foolish.

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  • By 4/7/07 at 2:32 p.m. UTC

    Since you ask, I would have been delighted had the loathesome Gingrich or anyone else spoken up for those of us who were deeply ashamed by Clinton’s criminal acts against the Iraqi people. I’m entirely convinced that his relentless campaign of bombing water treatment plants and similar infrastructure in Iraq constituted germ warfare against a civilian population, since the awful outcome of those forays was entirely predictable and their stated purpose could have been achieved with less carnage. Maybe you share Madeleine Albright’s infamous sang-froid about the numberless excess civilian deaths caused by her patron’s savagery, but not me.

    I’m certainly no fan of Ms. Pelosi, whose reflexive genuflections to AIPAC make me gag. But how in the world can you quote approvingly the Chimp-in-Chief’s mewling complaint that her visit to Damascus is condemnable because it sends Assad mixed messages from the US? Are you suggesting that serious disagreement on the part of some fraction of the ruling class ought never be permitted meaningful voice? When official policy is silent about or encouraging of the mischief of some despot you condemn, would you not praise a Senator or such who spoke directly to the freedom fighter du jour to let her know that not all of us are a snarling pack of hyenas supporting her oppressor?

    Or are you not working from an categorical principle, i.e., are you condemning Pelosi not for her behavior in undermining US foreign policy as a general rule, but because in this particular case (i.e., Assad), you prefer Bush’s view?

    And the Post’s preposterous indulgence given to Issa and other Republicans who made the same pilgrimage-that they “…didn’t try to introduce a new US diplomatic initiative in the Middle East.”-is contemptible in its brazen hypocrisy. Reuters reports that Issa talked about the wrongheadedness of isolating Syria, etc.-sounds like quite a tack from prevailing US policy to me.

  • By 4/6/07 at 12:35 p.m. UTC

    Air is pretty empty, but it will rush to fill a vacuum when the seal is broken.

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