April 03, 2007

Republicans Make Trip to Syria

Hmmm...apparently a few Republicans made a trip to Syria, something that is just coming out now. They were there shortly before the much brouhahaed arrival of Nancy Pelosi.

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt of Haleyville, a Republican, was one of three congressmen to visit Syria last weekend, a trip that is getting new scrutiny since President Bush has criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for visiting Damascus a few hours later.

...

Aderholt was with Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia and Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania on a Middle East trip that included stops in Damascus and Israel. According to a statement, they met with government officials, businessmen, religious leaders and other members of Syrian civil society, including opposition leader Riad Seif.

"We came because we believe there is an opportunity for dialogue," according to the statement.

There has been a lot of criticism of Nancy Pelosi and her contingent. But hey, there's plenty to go around. What are these guys thinking?

The visit by Pelosi is likely more damaging to President Bush's credibility due to her position as House Speaker. Her high profile is also the likely reason that her trip has received wide coverage while that of the three Republicans (I haven't heard of any of them before this) has been virtually ignored.

From what the article linked above says, it doesn't seem that these three guys had plans to meet with President Assad. So I suppose we have to give them credit for that. But come on! When congressmen and senators begin acting like foreign policy experts, especially when a sitting president has cut off diplomatic relations with a particular country, it erodes America's credibility. It doesn't matter if the junketeers are from the same party as the president or not.

These three should be held up to scrutiny as well.

UPDATE: It would be helpful to know exactly why these guys made the trip...are they looking to act as negotiators, or are they simply "fact finding," like so many congressmen and senators like to do on our dime? As I mentioned above, it doesn't seem as though they had plans to talk to the big kahuna with a "message" from Israel. Yet it's troubling that they went to Syria at all. These are questions that should be answered.

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Posted by Pam Meister at 08:55 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0) | Government

Comments

i tend to agree w/a post i just read. though i wasn't fond of the author's lack of tact his point is well taken. it is one thing to be on a fact finding mission and quite another to be a negotiator.

check out

http://joeleonardi.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/a-challenge/

Posted by: mia at April 3, 2007 09:57 PM

Hmmm...it's an interesting post, but am not sure what it has to do with the Republican trip. I do agree, however, that it's one thing to be a negotgiator, and another to simply go fact-finding. Nancy Pelosi is looking to be the negotiating savior...

(As for the post you link, I'm older than the 18-35 age bracket that Joe Leonardi challenges to sign up for service.)

Posted by: Pam at April 3, 2007 10:37 PM

Here is the scoop on the story.

http://www.iht. com/articles/ap/2006/12/16/america/NA_GEN_US_Senator_Syria.php

(delete the space between the period and the "com")

Posted by: Freedom Now at April 4, 2007 02:14 AM

Hello!

Posted by: mudkitty at April 4, 2007 07:16 PM

And the right wing dream of war with Iran has turned to dust.

Posted by: mudkitty at April 4, 2007 10:37 PM