It’s difficult to imagine that members of Congress led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will do anything but further complicate the Mideast situation with their sojourn to Syria to put pressure on President Bashar Assad. Criticizing such trips Tuesday, President Bush said, "Sending delegations hasn’t worked. It’s just simply been counterproductive."
Bush needs to follow the advice of the Iraq Study Group and give diplomacy more of a chance. Assad and his government also need to be told to stop supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and meddling in Lebanon and Iraq. But that message should come from the White House, not from a few lawmakers acting in defiance of the White House.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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43 Comments
I see Rhonda’s taking a hard line on Speaker Pelosi. It won’t immunize her from the Right Wingers who live to attack.
Nonetheless, someone needs to point out the obvious fact that Speaker Pelosi is accompanied by three Republicans: Reps. Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003649127_webpelosi03.html
How odd that Bush failed to notice.
“Assad and his government also need to be told to stop supporting Hamas and Hezbollah and meddling in Lebanon and Iraq.”
Are you that retarded Rhonda?
I think I will go take a dump now.
Double standard?
“”It’s interesting because three of our colleagues, who are all Republicans, were in Syria yesterday and I didn’t hear the White House speaking out about that,” Pelosi said, referring to the Sunday meeting of Reps. Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt with Assad in Damascus.
“I think that it was an excellent idea for them to go,” said Pelosi. “And I think it’s an excellent idea for us to go, as well.”
http://www.kansas.com/519/story/34658.html
And as for “But that message should come from the White House, not from a few lawmakers acting in defiance of the White House.” – that might be true but the White House refuses.
Since the Senate deals with Foreign Relations in the Constitutional sense, more than the House does, I’m curious about the trip as well.
I would have thought one or more of the Majority Senators would have taken up the task to seek out information and possible Mideast solutions.
No, no Rhonda – you’ve gotten it all wrong.
Please don’t send Pelosi back here.
Let’s try to get Syria to KEEP her.
lol
Yeah, once again, IOKIYYAR
VERY conservative congressman, Joe Pitts, met w/the Syrian president (sounds like his meeting was w/Bush approval) — of course, Pitts wasn’t publicly criticized!!http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/202433
Pitts in Syria before PelosiBut county’s U.S. rep. draws less criticism
LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. – 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 Bassar Assad. …
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. However, White House spokesman Alex Conant said Monday the Bush administration — as a blanket policy — “discourages all of (Congress’) visits” to Syria, a country believed by the White House to sponsor terrorism.
The House Speaker’s office criticized the Bush administration for focusing their criticisms — until Monday — on Pelosi, the top House Democrat, for leading a congressional delegation to meet with Assad later this week. “There’s a Republican trip going before her, and no one is criticizing that,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said. “So clearly the White House’s motives here are in question.” …
What, no answer from the CONS here?
And you farmie, jumped my poop at the other blog because I said you were ripe for drama and fights???
Pot, meet kettle.
Here’s one:
koo kookoo kookoo koo
So, W doesn’t want Nancy to go to Syria. Hummm, last I checked, she doesn’t answer to him.
Nothing of substance on the subject at hand sollie?
Fap fap fap
I’m tired of the crap. So if you have something important to say that is ON TOPIC, say it.
Otherwise, stfu.
On topic? How’s that McCain thread working for you? Practice what you preach or STFU your damn self.
Sollie, I was issued a challenge, personally insulted on my appearance, and I have generally endured the lies of GSheridan, up until now.
If you think you all can lie, bait, and talk crap without challenge…
…you need to go visit dubya’s blog. Oh, I see you already did. Multiple times.
I didnt drag the McCain thread off topic. Scroll and read you dumbass. Oops, did I just violate one of the “new rules”? Like GS and Republican did?
yeah. I see how well THAT is working. Sorry sollie. Trash me, bait me like you did on the other blog and then expect ME to be bound by the rules?
Perhaps I should repost how sollie came looking for me and called me out on the other blog. Then whined.
Nope. I’m not dragging this thread off topic either.
I’m still waiting for your ON TOPIC post here.
…and isnt it just like a typical forced birth repuke to say “yeah, well you did it too!”
Jesus wept.
(There. THAT felt better :)
Now back to your regularly scheduled efforts to take threads that point out republican hypocrisy off topic.
Then post it in the open thread. Show how I dragged your precious name thru the mud and disgraced you to the point of… well, doing what you do time and time again…
Forced birth… Pelosi.. yeah that IS the topic isn’t it?
heheheheheheehehe
And I see sollie STILL hasnt posted anything on topic here.
Puhlease.
Congressmen(women) and Senators have been traveling to foreign countries since the advent of jet airliners. Recall the term “junket”, which has been around since the 1960’s.
The current administration’s problem is that GWB campaigned on a promise to be a “uniter not a divider”. Then his crew united all the Republican legislators to be rubber stampers, and disenfranchised all Democrats and a lot of Independents. Rove (CREEP apprentice), Cheney and Rumsfeld loved working for Nixon. They thought the setback of the Imperial Presidency model needed to be repaired. They had the power to work collegially in a bipartisan framework, but chose not to. Didn’t have to, so why do it?
Let’s get real. Ignoring Bush-Cheney’s 2000 actual-vote-count loss (including Florida), and a suspect 2004 Ohio count, the reality is, had Bush said in 2000, “We’re taking our country back, the Democrats are traitors, and we’re going to totally freeze them out when we get into power,” the election wouldn’t have been contested: Bush-Cheney would have gone up in smoke.
One of the faults of Republican apologists here, and elsewhere is their inability to address the fact that the Bush-Cheney campaign got into office by promising to be conciliatory and respectful of other people, but then turned around and did the opposite, once they won.
Maybe Republican apologists feel that deceiving Americans is part of “patriotism” and “the rule of law”, but that’s an unprincipled argument.
“…personally insulted on my appearance,…”
Aren’t you the one with the self-description? I’ve never met you.
Still waiting on solly’s substantive comments on the subject.
I wonder if Nancy (helter skelter eyes) Pelosi realizes she doesn’t get frequent flyer miles when on her tax payer provided private jet.
Hank
Hank, what’s the difference between Pelosi being furnished a plane and Dennis Hassert being furnished a plane when he was in charge?
“(helter skelter eyes)”
Come on, Hank, that was beneath you. If we’re going to judge politicians by their looks, there are a lot of REALLY ugly people in DC.
CF2K is right-on. The most right-of-center WEBlog editor is not nearly right enough for the wingers.
Gee, Rhonda, maybe it’s time to see who the reasonable people are . . . and join them.
As long as Bush is criticizing House Speakers Pelosi trip to Syria, he is taking the subject off of the DOD, the FBI, and Walter Reed.
so the fact that just the week before her visit , three republicans did the same thing doesn’t make any difference?
gawd what a duntz
BEIRUT, Lebanon – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday shrugged off White House criticism of her impending visit to Damascus, saying she had “great hope” for reviving U.S. relations with Syria and changing its behavior.
Speaking hours after arriving in Lebanon, Pelosi indicated the Bush administration was singling out her trip to Syria while ignoring recent visits by Republican members of Congress.
“It’s interesting because three of our colleagues, who are all Republicans, were in Syria yesterday and I didn’t hear the White House speaking out about that,” Pelosi said, referring to the Sunday meeting of Reps. Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.
“I think that it was an excellent idea for them to go,” said Pelosi, who is to meet with Syrian leaders Wednesday. “And I think it’s an excellent idea for us to go, as well.”
Somebody needs to be talking to the Arabs since this administration doesn’t seem to have the knack. Believe it or not, there are ways to get your point across that don’t include shooting people and blowing them up. Not everybody who disagrees with us is a terrorist.
Someone in Washington needs to step up and be a voice in international diplomacy.
Come on, Hank, that was beneath you. If we’re going to judge politicians by their looks, there are a lot of REALLY ugly people in DC.Posted by: XXX
I see I am not the only one who has watched Cspan….(smile)
Any more if you take a dump, it can be spun did I do it as a Republican, Democrat, Conservative, liberal? How about we get back to it was done as an American?
Jeez Rhonda, do your homework. Or did you just take the GOP talking points off the wire and post them here?
How hard would it be to find out that GOP Reps. Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt were in Damascus on Sunday? Oh yeah, I forgot: It’s OK If You’re a Republican.
Blink dammit, blink Nancy!
Most of the time I would be highly critical of Pelosi for going to Syria. I am of the belief that foreign policy is that which expressed by the President of the USA and that his voice should speak for the country EVEN if he is a Republican. But Bush has been such a DISASTER for our foreign relations that others have to go overseas and try to limit the damage to our standing and image. Even the King of Saudi Arabia is expressing anger at Bush which is almost unheard of! It is like, if you have a goofy uncle that drinks too much and makes a fool of himself in front of others and you tell the neighbour “the rest of the family isn’t as goofy” to try and save place.
So, President Bush said, “Sending delegations hasn’t worked.”Maybe he hasn’t noticed, but whatever the hell he’s been doing in the middle-east isn’t working either!
Well, the other alternative, as propagated by bush in his usual way, is to invade and bog down.
Pelosi’s trip sounds a lot cheaper in both lives and money. I’ll take the trip anytime.
Once more, Hank is not merely wrong, he is terribly wrong:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0O0wl_UaU8
Steven,The reason Cheney didn’t blink is that he died several years back and they had him stuffed.
Rhonda just proved herself completely clueless about foreign affairs. Sorry Rhonda, the Bush approach to foreign affairs hasn’t worked, so let someone whose idea of diplomacy doesn’t mean pointing a gun and issuing threats.
Bush says that diplomacy doesn’t work. I believe what he is afraid of happening, is that diplomacy will ultimately be what gets us out of this mess he has created, and he knows it. He doesn’t want to be proven wrong, YET AGAIN.
Good point, TDT.
Another example: Blair’s diplomacy ultimately results in the release of hostages held by Iran. I would really like to see an anatomy of these discussions, talk about spinning gold from lead.
Just throwing this out there: can anybody keep lunch down while one’s head spins thinking of the multiple ways Bush would have screwed this up?
A snowball in hell stands a better chance than would we had Americans been taken hostage by Iran with Jedi Prez W, aka Commander Codpiece, in office.
LOL
All that outsourcing of government functions, maybe Bush can outsource American foreign policy to the UK?
LOL, nah we ain’t ever gettin’ THAT lucky.
So. What do you all think about the hypothesis that it was Pelosi, working through the Syrians, that helped to get the British hostages released?
Speaker Pelosi appears to be as good at shuttle diplomacy as she is at getting House Democrats to vote as a bloc.
Oh, and did anybody see the sequence of photos between Pelosi and Bush? Scroll down to check ‘em out: she’s got his number. Big time.
http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/
She has more smarts in her little finger than do any ten members of the “Administration” combined.
With their silence, I think that “Farm Girl” and “Solly” must have found a private room and are now making naughty!..lol
My caricature of Pelosi. It’s my first caricature, has some flaws in it.
http://republikan.typepad.com/graphics_and_design/2007/04/xara_xtreme_art_2.html
Since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid a visit to Syria oil futures have stabilized.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is making Condoleezza Rice irrelevant… finally someone has come along and put Rice out of running US foreign policy, or should I say making things worse.