Nancy Pelosi, you’ve just won the House of Representatives and become House Speaker. What are you going to do next?
(In incredibly over the top voice that would make the Spice Girls seem like rocket scientists) I’m going to Damascus!
At this point the fellow shooting the commercial yells “cut” and explains to her that the line is Disneyland. Like explaining to Betty White’s character on the Golden Girls the difference between a Lebanese and a Lesbian, Ms. Pelosi seems to confuse a pleasure trip for the entire family with a nation that sponsors worldwide terrorism.
One of the reasons that I was not initially concerned about Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker was that I was under the illusion that since democrats at this point in history stand for nothing, they would not disrupt society by actually doing anything. Sure, they could make bombastic speeches. They could conduct endless investigations on republican non-scandals. They could even claim that their supporters that have nothing to do but attend protest rallies do not represent them. However, the one thing democrats were not supposed to do was actually govern. They were not to try and enact actual policies. When they do this…they lose elections.
Nancy Pelosi is going to find out what Newt Gingrich found out over a decade ago…there is only one President. Oh, and Nancy…you are no Newt Gingrich. Newt had ideas. He had core beliefs that the American people were comfortable with. When he rolled up his sleeves and got to work, he dragged Bill Clinton kicking and screaming into a balanced budget. When he tried to become a de facto Prime Minister, Bill Clinton clobbered him in the court of public opinion. The reason for this is simple. The President is the Commander in Chief. There is no other.
When the President tells America, rightfully so, that Syria is a terrorist nation, and that it is illegal…yes illegal…to do business with them…what gives anyone the audacity to take a trip there. I would expect this type of behavior from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, because they do not actually work for a living or have any responsibilities. Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House. She has work to do.
So Nancy now understands what her fate is. Unlike Presidents, who get to ride on Air Force One and meet foreign dignitaries and make world history, Nancy is simply the tallest member of 435 legislative grunts who have to sit in subcommittee hearings and read multi-thousand page documents that no one seems to care about. This can be tedious when there is a complex legislative agenda such the 1994 Contract With America, but it is even more boring when there is no agenda at all. Having meetings to determine what to actually believe, say and think is not for people who want more out of life than keeping C-Span employed.
Ms. Pelosi, as much as you enjoyed your visit to Syria, the cold hard reality is that nothing you did on that trip was consequential. George W. Bush is President. You are not. Once you leave the shores of the USA, you are a Paean. You are a nobody. This is not to demean you, but to remind you that an overblown sense of self-importance does not go over well with voters. You are a congresswoman from San Francisco. Period. That is it. Taking junkets to Syria for the sole purpose of undermining the President is bordering on sedition. When Jimmy Carter does it, it is not as bad, because no one took Jimmy Carter seriously when he was President, so his proclamations mean even less now. You however are seen by some as being relevant. Therefore, keep your disagreements with the President within the confines of the USA.
Some people are focusing on the fact that the trip was a failure. She made promises to Syria regarding Israel. Israel rapidly contradicted those promises. This made Ms. Pelosi look foolish. The real issue is that if the President bans people from doing business with Syria, that is an executive order. If General Motors or IBM or Coca Cola had been caught doing business with Syria, the CEOs could have gone to jail. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Syria was plain and simple…again…a crime. What makes it even worse than that is that the 3rd most powerful person in the USA actually believes that dialogue with Syria works. Has she ignored their history? Did she not notice that by putting on that head scarf that she was submitting to Sharia law? Did Bashar Assad promise to stop funding Hezbollah? Did he turn over the murderers who killed the former Lebanese Prime Minister (of course not, he would be turning in himself).
What Nancy Pelosi fails to grasp is that it is easy to be a revolutionary. Governing is harder. She led the democrats to victory in 2006 (although it can be argued that if they had lost, she would have been the reason why. She is a liability). Now comes the time to govern. 2008 is a long way away. If George W. Bush is the enemy, than Nancy Pelosi should stay the course. If she believes, as most clear thinking Americans do, that having tea and crumpets with Islamofascists is a bad idea for America, she should do what liberals do best when they want to be popular…go on vacation and hope the republicans self-destruct.
Disneyland awaits you Ms. Pelosi. It is the friendliest place on Earth. They employ Rosie O’Donnell. You could have tea and crumpets with her and discuss the Iranian President Armageddonijad. What you cannot do is give aid and comfort to America’s enemies. Ms. Pelosi, despite your title as Speaker, you need to do what is right for America and politically smart for democrats. You need to stop speaking. You are a good misguided kid Ms. Pelosi, but it is time for the adults to handle the business of governing. So take a time out and go play with Mickey and his friends. The President has a nation to lead.
eric
I feel the speaker overstepped her bounds. I wrote a column about it that gives my reasoning if you would like to read it.
http://joeleonardi.wordpress.com…eaker-of-state/
Joe