Stupid Republican Watch
We all know Speaker Pelosi is pretending to be President by visiting Syria.
And, she is getting cover from Republicans who do not understand history nor their own Constitution:
"We came because we believe there is an opportunity for dialogue," the statement said. "We are following in the lead of Ronald Reagan, who reached out to the Soviets during the Cold War," it added.Ed Morrissey nails it:
Perhaps they missed this one particular difference, but Ronald Reagan was President and the Constitutional determiner of American foreign policy. Congress doesn't have the authority to conduct negotiations on behalf of the United States, just as they do not have the authority to take command of the military. If these three stooges want to shape American foreign policy, then let them run for President. In the meantime, they should stick to legislating. When politicians conduct these unauthorized negotiations, it reduces the bargaining power of the President. In Nancy Pelosi's case, that's her explicit goal, because she wants to force Bush out of Iraq to deliver on campaign pledges. In the case of these loose cannons, the motivation seems to be self-aggrandizement more than anything else. Jimmy Carter and to a lesser extent Jesse Jackson have made a career of screwing up international relations. Nothing good has ever come of it. I found this type of thing distasteful when it happened to Bill Clinton as well. The President, regardless of the party to which he belongs, needs to present American policy as a united front. It's bad enough when the opposition party undermines that credibility; it's astoundingly idiotic for the President's own party to destroy it.Just where are the adults on Capitol Hill?