A new level of idiocy by our White House
by Hanlon on April 3, 2007 at 11:50 pmNow, you all know I don’t link to blogs a lot, but in this case I have to give credit where credit is due for alerting me to this. First of all, we’re all familiar with the flare-up concerning Pelosi’s trip to Syria. Nothing new there. However, what I was unaware of was that GOP House members had also made such a trip. Not only that, they were backed by the administration as well.
While U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s upcoming visit to Syria has caused the White Houe 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.
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.
Okay, so the chief of staff of a GOP Congressman is saying outright that the trip was intended to be low profile and that the White House was in on it. Am I surprised to find out that Republicans were making a similar trip? No. That the administration helped? Slightly. Only slightly surprised, but entirely disgusted.
Posted: April 3rd, 2007 under middle east, republicans, white house.
Comments
Comment from Hanlon
Time April 4, 2007 at 11:22 am
I’m actually going to have to disagree with you there, Mick. Article 2 Section 3 reads as follows:
“He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.”
There’s nothing anywhere in there that says he can prohibit members of Congress from meeting with anyone. After all, if that were true, Pelosi couldn’t just “discard” the Constitution because Bush would have the legal power to stop her. Much as I like Pelosi and dislike Bush, I’d never agree that the Constitution should be violated to take a jab at him.
The motivation, from what I’ve gleaned since initially writing about it, seems to at least be in part due to Syria’s undeniable role in Middle Eastern stability. And to make jabs at her over the nature of her visit really is to ignore the fact that THREE Republican House members are making the same visit, with Bush’s consent.
Bush, a born-again Christian who wears his cross on his sleeve, allowing the same meeting? And here’s the follow-up: supposing for a minute that Pelosi’s trip is entirely “photo-op” based, why are those three GOP Congressmen going? It was intended to be low-profile, so certainly no photo ops. Clearly there’s a good reason.
Comment from The Mick
Time April 4, 2007 at 8:11 am
I have never been able to figure out how anyone could have voted for the current President. He runs the most ethically corrupt administration since U.S. Grant.
That said, he is the President. Article 2, Section 3 of the U.S. constitution puts him in charge of government meetings with foreign officials. Nancy Pelosi is discarding the constitution to do what? She reported that she told the Syrians that Israel will only talk to them if they stop supporting certain Palestinian groups. Does any intelligent person in the world believe that Syria hasn’t been told that before? Pelosi didn’t get where she is by being naive. There’s an ulterior motive but why Syria?
Sadly, her smiling visit is benefitting the government behind the assassination of the Lebanese President Harari (as determined by the United Nations) and strongly suspected of murdering Lebanese cabinet minister Gemayel. Key Christians are being killed in Lebanon with the Lebanese crying out that “the hands of Syria are all over it.” Christians are persecuted in Syria. I bet Pelosi, raised as a Catholic in Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhoods, won’t bother complaining about that. She’ll get more mileage by smiling broadly during photo ops.