Apparently the Washington beltway disdain for Congressmen visiting “evil axis” Syrian leaders does not apply to Republicans. Vice President Dick Cheney said Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit of Syria undermined the American policy of isolating that country for harboring terrorists. He said it served as a reward for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s bad behavior. FOX News pundits severely criticized Pelosi, accusing her of “playing Henry Kissinger” and noting her botched Israeili “peace pipe” message was reason to confine her to the capitol hill kitchen and leave foreign policy to the pros.
But a week after Speaker Nancy Pelsoi conducted her Middle East tour, including meeting with Assad, Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of California did the same thing. Republican Congressmen Frank Wolf, R-Virginia, Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, and Joseph Pitts, R-Pennsylvania, all visited Syrian leaders a mere three days before Pelosi.
The White House did not criticize them.
Did the Bush administration’s supportive media outlet, Fox News, bash Issa for making his trip? No. When Fox commentators were haranguing Pelosi they did not even mention the Republicans visiting Syria the same week.
Congressional trips overseas are not new. Issa also visited with Assad in 2003 and encouraged him to stop harboring terrorists that were attacking American forces in Iraq. Later, Bush’s Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Assad – a meeting which the White House at the time called a “candid exchange of views.” After that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage visited Syria in 2005. So much for isolating the evil axis. Assad can hardly close up the hide-a-bed and fold the sheets before another American politician knocks on the door.
One cannot expect Bush or Cheney to miss a chance to criticize a Democrat. They have never pretended to be non-partisan (even though their solution to Washington partisanship is “do as I say”). And certainly no administration wants Congress to meddle in the good old boys club of foreign policy. But, FOX still trumpets its “fair and balanced” marketing slogan. Why can’t FOX’s founder and president Roger Ailes, a former Reagan and Nixon campaign operative, just admit that he’s dishing out Republican Party propaganda meant to undermine any leader of the opposing party?
In the words of former Sen. Bob Dole: “I know it. You know it. Eveyone knows it.” We all know it. Dispense with the pretense.
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For a different view on this topic, see: Congress, Pelosi should not overstep foreign policy bounds
