Rep. Cantor Launches Partisan Smear Campaign Against Pelosi For Syria Visit

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/10/cantor-attacks-pelosi/

Rep. Cantor Launches Partisan Smear Campaign Against Pelosi For Syria Visit


Eric Cantor (R-VA), the chief deputy minority whip in the House, has launched a partisan smear campaign against Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for visiting Syria. He writes in the National Review:

The Speaker and many of her Democratic allies have become so drunk with grandiose visions of deposing Bush that they break bread with terrorists and enemies of the United States. The Speaker’s words and actions carry consequences for U.S. policy, and they certainly did our allies no favors last week. Instead of standing united with the president and Congress against the Syrian menace, Mrs. Pelosi chose to needlessly divide us.

Nowhere in his 700-word diatribe does Cantor mention the fact that five Republicans “broke bread” with Assad last week: Reps. Frank Wolf, Joseph Pitts, Robert Aderholt, David Hobson, and Darrell Issa.

Meanwhile, on his blog, Cantor is conducting a campaign to “Stop Pelosi.” He writes that Congress has “remained silent on Pelosi’s misrepresentation of Israel’s position. They have remained silent on her assistance to Syrian propaganda efforts.”

Unsurprisingly, Cantor is falsifying the record. Here are the facts:

Pelosi Was Asked To Communicate A Message And She Did. Before she left for Syria, Olmert’s spokeswoman Miri Eisin said “Pelosi is conveying that Israel is willing to talk if they (Syria) would openly take steps to stop supporting terrorism.” And that’s what Pelosi did: “We conveyed to him Prime Minister Olmert’s overture for peace talks when Syria openly takes steps to stop supporting terrorism.”

Pelosi Communicated A Consistent Message. Republican Congressman David Hobson said Pelosi “did not engage in any bashing of Bush in any meeting I was in and she did not in any meeting I was in bash the policies as it relates to Syria.” Republican Congressman Joseph Pitts noted, “Ms. Pelosi contacted us while we were in Israel, and we told her the message we gave. The message she gave Syria was similar to the message we gave.”

Cantor encourages his readers to contact Congress: “It is time for House Democrats to hear from you about how unhappy you are with Speaker Pelosi’s trip to Damascus.” Actually, it’s time for Rep. Cantor to hear from you — go leave a message in his comments section or give his office a call and tell him to stop his partisan-motivated attacks against Pelosi.

[Greeby]

1. Smear this, asshole

[Supersedeas]

2. and he probably espouses a Christian ethos while writing bile like this!?!

[underpants]

3. THAT'S MY CONGRESSMAN!!!!

:eyes: :grr: :silly:

[hellbound-liberal]

4. Mine too, Here's what I posted on his blog:

Dear Rep. Cantor, As one of your constituents in District 7, I urge you to cease and desist in your ill-conceived and misleading smear campaign against The Speaker of the House concerning her recent trip to Syria. You provide a link to an erroneous editorial from the Washington Post that misrepresents what happened on the trip. According to Rep. Hobson of Ohio, the only Republican on the trip, Pelosi and the others presented a united front that supported the policies of the Bush Administration and possibly made progress toward peace in the Middle East. Regarding the misrepresentation of Israel's position toward Syria, Pelosi accurately conveyed that, should the Syrians end their support for Hamas and Hezbollah, then Israel would be willing to talk. In the future, please get your facts straight before embarking on these misguided and unproductive attacks on your fellow members of Congress.