Conason: To Damascus with Nancy Pelosi (why neocons are apoplectic)

[kskiska]

Why neocons are so apoplectic about the speaker's visit to Syria.

With her brief visit to Syria, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has provoked an outburst of flaming hysteria from the Bush administration, as well as from the neoconservatives who fashioned its ruinous war and failed foreign policies. The screaming critics of the speaker charge her with undermining presidential power, freelancing Mideast diplomacy, appeasing a terrorist regime and even surrendering to Islamist radicalism by donning a head scarf. By merely meeting with Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, Pelosi supposedly proved that she was eager to promote irresponsible partisanship at the cost of national unity and constitutional order.

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."

Yet those furious complaints were all false and, more important, beside the point. The problem is not what Pelosi did or said, but how she exposed the exhaustion of neoconservative policy.

As most of her critics surely know, there is nothing outrageous or even unusual about a meeting between a foreign head of state and a member of Congress. Indeed, she was preceded on the road to Damascus by Rep. Frank Wolf, a prominent Virginia Republican who led a GOP delegation to meet with Assad, and she was soon followed by Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican whose remarks after seeing the Syrian leader were sharply critical of the Bush White House.

more…
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/04/06/pelosi_syria/

[grannylib]

1. And still there are the terminally stupid who holler about the 'liberal media'

WTF are they TALKING about??

The neo-con-men and Chimpy the Imbecile are getting the shit kicked out of them by Congress and the American people, and their whole shaky house of cards is falling, and all they can do is stomp thier little feet and cry like spoiled toddlers.
There doesn't seem to be a responsible, intelligent adult in the lot of 'em.

Pelosi is showing TRUE LEADERSHIP. THAT'S what all the whining is about. Of course, anyone with half the sense God gave a goat could upstage these people on the leadership front; there just plain isn't any with this corrupt cabal.

[Kikosexy2]

11. It hurts a man's...

ego when his balls are kicked like a mule by a girl...Go Nancy!..next tour Kim Jong Il

[Raksha]

18. She is showing true leadership--AND she is upstaging Kindasleazy,

the alleged "Secretary of State." After all, Bush was supposed to get all these brownie points (pun intended) for appointing Kindasleazy to the highest cabinet post any black woman has yet achieved. Nancy Pelosi isn't black, but she is definitely a woman who holds the highest congressional post any woman has yet achieved. And she's making Condi look like the amateur she is when it comes to diplomacy. That's what has really got their panties in a twist...

[peacetalksforall]

2. I have fun with a fantasy of George having a fit when he learned

she was going - and with Wasman and Ellison? No way. I can hear him yelling at people to find him a law that would allow him to stop her or or screaming to them to make up a law or whether he could use Executive privilege or asking what would happen to a lawsuit if he stopped her. Do you think he yelled at Condi? Do yo think he wishe he had bolding Bolton on his staff?

So he decided on three recess appointments - I wonder what other revenge he will take.

[peacetalksforall]

3. Love, Joe - wish I could read the entire thing. K and r for others.

[Gregorian]

4. When I called Pelosi's office earlier this week, I said she had "pulled the rug out from under him".

That's exactly why they are so very much like an angry hive of hornets.

It's almost laughable how far down this misguided road we've come. From bad navigation, to sleeping citizens.

But to read the comments from the different journals, it's apparent just how choreographed the media and the neocons must be in order to pull it all off.

It what they say is true, throw Nancy in the cell at Guantanamo, and get on with it.

We're on the downslope now. But even so it's hard to be patient with the liars who are still murdering for their profits.

There's no business like war business.

[rodeodance]

5. she domestrated that you CAN talk with the 'enemy"--puts a stomper

on any plans to attach Iran I think.

[Control-Z]

6. I am in awe of Nancy Pelosi

I don't see the "used car salesman" in her, pandering for popularity, that I see in so many politicians. I see a woman who knows right from wrong and a woman who promotes what she believes in.

'Now in their bankruptcy, they can only smear those who, like Speaker Pelosi, are attempting to promote a bipartisan alternative. Let us hope she possesses the courage to continue that crucial mission.'

If I were in her position I'd be shriveled up on the sofa now, feeling defeated and licking my wounds. Not Nancy, though.

Her courage to stand up and face these bastards without blinking is just one of the many reasons I am so in awe of her.

[Bear down under]

7. That's not a hijab she's wearing in that photograph

It's an ordinary patterned scarf, such as Catholic women often wear at church. To cover her hair in a house of worship as she would do in her own is simple good manners.

As for visiting the mosque, why shouln't she? The Great Mosque of Damascus is a very beautiful and significant historic building -- and one of significance to many Christians, certainly to Catholics, as the head of John the Baptist is enshrined there. That alone would be sufficient reason for her to want to visit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_Mosque

[grannylib]

17. Yes, just like Laura Bush and Condosleaza Rice have also done when

visiting the Middle East, or Diane Sawyer or other female reporters who have interviewed religious figures from Islam.

[Diane R]

8. Our local news (BELO station) said Pelosi 'Outraged' the Israeli Prime Minister with her bungling.

[PegDAC]

13. Bungling?

What in Hades, pray tell, did she bungle?

[cascagraphic]

9. typical.....not to mention downright stupid

The neocons are officially dead.

[whistle]

10. An accurate and piercing summation at the end of the article...

<snip>

The neoconservatives, both within and outside the White House, resent Pelosi for publicly dissenting from their ideology of war and their rejection of diplomacy. Their own vision has collapsed in ruins; they have gravely harmed the American military and discredited the ideals of democracy, and they have run out of ideas. That sucking sound is the vacuum of their minds.

Now in their bankruptcy, they can only smear those who, like Speaker Pelosi, are attempting to promote a bipartisan alternative. Let us hope she possesses the courage to continue that crucial mission.
<end>

[tlsmith1963]

12. At Least She Tried Something Else

It's not like Bush's way was working. And diplomacy doesn't necessarily mean that you like the people you have to deal with, but it needs to be attempted in this case. I think Pelosi did the right thing.

[jazzjunkysue]

14. Neocons are always apopleptic. You go, Nance! Govern! Woo Hoo!

Nancy works for me, not the Israeli prime minister.

[19jet54]

15. "apoplectic"?

... I had to look that word up in the dictionary; Does that mean I'm an ignorant Republican puke too? :cry:

[jazzjunkysue]

16. [e-mail] Send her the Love! n/t.

[disndat]

19. Nancy's star turn.

Nancy Pelosi's presence in the Mid East had enormous impact. The right person at the right place, at th right time. No wonder Bushco was apoplectic.