Pelosi Disregards Law of the Jungle
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 at 07:52PM In one fell swoop, Nancy Pelosi, US House Speaker, demonstrates her ignorance of Rudyard Kipling and her willingness to put America’s foreign policy at risk by traveling Syria to “talk.”
Now this is the Law of the Jungle -- as old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk the Law runneth forward and back --
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
President Bush has sought to isolate Syria and during a White House press conference said:
'We have made it clear to high-ranking officials, whether they be Republicans or Democrats, that going to Syria sends mixed signals,' Bush said.
'Photo opportunities and/or meetings with President Assad lead the Assad government to believe they're part of the mainstream of the international community, when, in fact, they're a state sponsor of terror,' he added.
monstersandcritics.com continues:
Pelosi, a Democrat and a staunch opponent of Bush, had previously visited Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. She heads a congressional delegation which also includes Representative Keith Ellison, a Democrat from Minnesota who is the first Muslim in Congress. The Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Tom Lantos, also accompanied Pelosi.
Former Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that her visit indicated the failure of all attempts to isolate Syria. (my emphasis)
View Printer Friendly Version
Reader Comments (22)
We live in a Democracy and any American Citizen is entitled to travel in and out of the country. Congressional trips are routine and necessary. Pelosi's trip also includes Israel and Lebannon.
Very telling is the fact that your quote source felt the need to single out the religion of only one of the people in the delegation and not include the political affiliation (Republican) of another.
In the past Congressional delegations have gone to China and the Soviet Union, two regimes that make Syria look like Disneyworld. I am not a fan of Nancy Pelosi, but she is clearly within her bounds in this instance and the attempt to blacken her name for this trip is simple desperate politics.
"Very telling is the fact that your quote source felt the need to single out the religion of only one of the people"
The Muslim religion is critical here;it should be mentioned. Syria supports Hezb’Allah (translates as “The Party of Allah”) Hezb’Allah actively seeks the destruction of Israel. It is Muslim.
Keith Ellison, Representative from Minnesota, is not just any Muslim. From 89- 98 he was associated with the radical group, The Nation of Islam. Also, he recently spoke at a fund raiser for CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations) CAIR Board members have clear ties to terrorism, serve as a conduit for radical islamist groups, and refuse to publically renounce Hamas, the organization actively seeking the destruction of Israel.
So, the fact that Pelosi took Ellison -a Muslim - along on this trip is a critical piece of information.
Regarding Republicans, the article I sourced from quotes Bush who includes Republicans in his criticism.
Pelosi is singled out here because she - as Speaker of the House - is very powerful. She is next in line for the Presidency were anything to happen to the VIce-President.
If her name is "blackened" it's by her own doing.
She is not just a representative, but the Speaker of the House (God help us!). Since when does the House conduct foriegn policy?
Oh well, let her go. She undermines the war effort in so many ways, she deserves the right to visit her leader.
Its time congress forged their own foreign policy and tried diplomacy and tact instead of the bull in a china shop style of what will surely go down as the most incompetent president in history
That's what's missing? Tactfulness? So Hariri was killed because of a lack of "tact?" and Hizb'llah kills and maims because of a lack of "tact?" Terrorists run back and forth across the Syrian border to destabilize Iraq because of "tact?"
Tact is not an American strong suit neither eas it an English one for most if not all of the last 500 years
You can either talk to them or bomb them and Iraq has been ample enough proof that all bombing does is increase the resentment.
If you talk to Syria, by that I mean speak frankly with them and quietly, then you may achieve what you desire. You will Never achieve it by threatening them openly in public because that would require them to back down and lose face with their neighbours and make them ripe for a coup d'etat or an invasion by militants.
Thats what tact is, not making your enemy eat dirt pie in front of his freinds. Making them eat dirt pie behind a closed door is perfectly acceptable
I know I seem vitriolically anti-america and I sort of am but I have met hundreds of americans and as individuals they are really nice people the problem is if we put more than three of you in a room you think you should run the world
That is the purvue of the President.
I am not an Ellison fan. I would never have voted for him given his record. But be honest, his religion is mentioned here as an attempt to discredit Pelosi.
Charles - I agree Bush didn't say it directly, but he might as well have. Once again I repeat that it is a longstanding practice of Congressional members to travel abroad on fact finding missions. The simple fact is there is no security breach, there is no embrace of Syria's tactics and Pelosi hasn't done anything that Speakers of the House haven't done before.
This is the unhappy ride that we are left with in the remaining time of the Bush presidency - a false surge to make sure the war goes over into the next adminsitration and accusing political opponents of being insufficiently patriotic and undermining the troops.
If she wanted to go on a fact finding mission, maybe a visit to the troops in Iraq would be better, as opposed to one of the regional thugs trying to kill them. Grrrrr!
The old adage of "Politics stops at the waters edge" should apply here.
Pelosi is usurping the power of the President to negociate with foriegn governments. Calling it a fact finding mission is all well and good. Jane Fonda was just fact finding in Hanoi I suppose. (What took me so long comparing Pelosi and Fonda. Slipping, I guess).
Let's get Pelosi to have her picture taken on an AA-gun and be done with it!
Double GRRRRRRR!
She's not just anybody. She is Speaker of the House, third in line for the Presidency, after Cheney. It matters what she does. She doesn't say she is "fact finding" - she says that she is there to "talk." She's implementing the Baker Commission's recommendations. Against the Administration's decisions.
She's going around the President. The President was elected, not Pelosi. She does not have a mandate to take over foreign policy just because the President's poll numbers are way down. This can only hurt America.
Typical woman!! Doesn't know how to play on a team....;)
If he attends one, he must attend them all. Also, it would be unseemly, as the attention would be on him.
He meets with the families of many, always behind closed doors with no media present.
I'll get back to you on the travels of former Speakers of the House on Wednesday.
I have to go but I'll check back on Wednesday.
Nancy represents only her contituents in the Bay Area, around San Francisso. You are right though, the Democrats won a narrow majority in the last election in both the House and Senate but that doesn't take Bush's mandate as Commander-in-Chief away from him.
Pelosi has no mandate to act as she is acting and it is bad for the country.
its a pitty every day more americans are injured and killed in a war that was lost 2 years ago
Bush indeed was elected president (even with the popular vote this time). A mandate comes with a landslide, which he didn't have. His policies were certainly repudiated by the most recent Congressional elections. Any poll demonstrates that far from a mandate he actually governs now as a lame duck. His powers as Commander in Chief make him head of the military not dictator.
seems to me y'all broke that rule