Read the whole thing. Here’s a taste:
The tone of the complaints [from the Bush administration about Pelosi’s trip] – particularly Vice President Dick Cheney’s public characterization of her visit as “bad behavior” – contrasts sharply with the administration’s silence about a similar trip to Damascus a week ago by Republican lawmakers, Representatives Frank R. Wolf of Virginia, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Robert B. Aderholt of Alabama.
Nor was there much heard from the White House about a meeting that Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, had with Mr. Assad on Thursday, a day after Ms. Pelosi met with the Syrian president….
Democrats say the complaints have a certain political expediency to them, and note that many of the same people criticizing Ms. Pelosi’s decision to delve into foreign policy were fine when Newt Gingrich, then the Republican speaker of the House, made his own foray into foreign policy back in 1997.
The Republican House leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, criticized Ms. Pelosi’s trip, telling reporters that she was in Syria “for one reason, and that is to embarrass the president.” In 1997, Mr. Boehner accompanied Mr. Gingrich to China, and called the trip “very educational.”
Awesome. Too bad they didn’t note ex-Speaker Denny Hastert’s trip to Colombia, during which he more or less told the Colombian government to ignore the Clinton administration and deal directly with the Republican Congress. Otherwise, it’s a great article.
It may be that Pelosi was first to recast blue/red as parent/child, when she said that Prez needed to ‘calm down.’ Then Cheney, who is Prez’s dad, reversed field and cited Little Miss Congress for ‘bad behavior.’ See you and raise you, says grandma Speaker: no tantrums in my house.
<
p>
no doubt all this is emboldening the terrorists.
To the Republicans, junkets by Republican are good. Junkets by Democrats–such as Pelosi’s was–are bad.
<
p>
Thanks for ‘splainin’ it all to me. In 100 words or less 😉
…Citizen Reagan negotiating with Iranian kidnappers while Carter was still president.