Three Republican congressmen, who visited Damascus three days before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived, were eager to disassociate themselves from the Democratic leader and make clear they did not even know she was going to Syria.Meanwhile, Pelosi and her crew are still working on damage control. Good luck with that.
When President Bush assailed Pelosi for her Syrian mission, she noted that Republican Reps. Frank Wolf of Virginia, Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania and Robert Aderholt of Alabama made the same journey. Some news reports gave the false impression that they all were on the same congressional delegation. While Wolf stressed that he and his two GOP colleagues support Bush's Iraq policy, their mission to Damascus violated the president's policy, as did Pelosi's.
Despite Pelosi's boasts of a successful summit with Assad, she botched big-time by delivering a peace message to the Syrian leader from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - prompting Israeli officials to issue a statement correcting her.More from Jules Crittenden.
"You can imagine our surprise to hear from Mr. Olmert that that's not what he wanted at all," said Rochester Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter, who was traveling alongside Pelosi and asserted that Olmert gave Pelosi explicit instructions.
Slaughter blamed right-wing media outlets for fueling the political uproar over the congressional trip to Syria, though the left-leaning Washington Post ran a scathing editorial slamming their "foolish" renegade diplomatic excursion.
"We did not deviate a half an inch from the policy of the United States of America," said Slaughter, who along with Pelosi had ignored White House and State Department requests that they not go to Syria.
Previously: Pelosi: Syria Trip Strengthened Ties, Pathetic Pelosi
No comments:
Post a Comment