Sioux City Journal

A reminder for Pelosi

Posted: Thursday, April 05, 2007

Someone needs to remind Nancy Pelosi that she's speaker of the U.S. House, not president of the U.S.

The way Pelosi talks and acts, we sometimes wonder whether she's confused about her position and role. Democrats won control of both legislative branches of the federal government in November, not the executive branch. Pelosi isn't the commander-in-chief and she isn't in charge of American foreign policy. Whether she likes it or not, those duties and responsibilities belong to George W. Bush for another 21 months.

Still, there was Pelosi on Tuesday and Wednesday, thumbing her nose at the Bush administration from the streets of Damascus, Syria. Despite being asked by the White House not to travel to Syria, Pelosi - America's self-appointed Middle East ambassador - went, even meeting with Syria's president, Bashar Assad, on Wednesday.

The president and his administration make foreign policy for this country. Debate about those policies back home in the halls of Congress is wholly appropriate.

However, when an administration - any administration - believes it counterproductive to its policies for a high-ranking official of our government to visit a foreign nation with which we are at odds and goes so far as to ask that the official stay home, then that official should respect and listen to that. In no part of the world is it more important to carefully consider the dangers inherent in delivering mixed, perhaps conflicting American signals than in the volatile Middle East.

If, say, Newt Gingrich had ignored a request from President Clinton to not visit Yugoslavia and instead had traveled there, even going so far as to meet with its president, Slobodan Milosevic, while he was speaker, what would Pelosi's position have been? She would have been outraged, of course - and justifiably so.

However, when you are suffering from the delusion that you are, in fact, the president, as Pelosi appears to be, apparently you can justify that kind of hypocrisy in your mind.

Story Comments

H Finder wrote on Aug 14, 2008 5:24 PM:

" Now that McCain has basically formed his own private State Department and is sending diplomats to Georgia, when can we expect you to write a piece saying: Someone needs to remind John McCain that she's speaker of the U.S. House, not president of the U.S. "

artis wrote on Nov 5, 2007 1:56 PM:

" all of our leaders need to repent for their sins and the everyday people of the world. Keep doing what you all are doing, because your fullfilling prophices of the Bible,and the Christians first will be raptured and then a leader from the european gov. will make a 7 year peace treaty with Israel then break it and then things are really going to get bad for the whole world.But Christians will be gone with Jesus Christ and you all will want and explation for the disapperance of your loved one that belong to Jesus Christ and he (the one from the Roman Empire EU) will tell you all what you want to here (A Lie).May God have mercy on all your souls.Theres still time to except Christ as your Lord and Saviour. "

Craig wrote on Apr 17, 2007 9:54 AM:

" The average American family will have to pay an extra $2,641 a year if President Bush's 2003 tax cuts are allowed to expire -- but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats have given no indication they plan to extend the cuts. The tax cuts have not substantially reduced current tax revenues, according to a Heritage Foundation report in January, and economic growth rates have more than doubled since the 2003 cuts. But if the tax cuts are allowed to expire, the federal government will grab more than 1.5 percent of GDP a year in extra tax revenue by 2017, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The sneaky thing is that instead of voting to raise taxes and going on the record � Congress won't have to do a thing. "

Keith P wrote on Apr 17, 2007 9:52 AM:

" The mother of a Marine who tried to kill himself after two tours of duty in Iraq was arrested Monday while protesting the war outside the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tina Richards of Salem, Ore., was with a group of 15 to 20 protesters when she was arrested in the hallway outside the speaker's office. "I have been trying to meet with Speaker Pelosi since November because she needs to listen to the moms and other women affected by the war," Richards said in a statement. Hammill said Richards' request for a meeting with Pelosi is pending. "She's met repeatedly with staff, and we've passed her concerns to the speaker," he said. Last month, Richards confronted Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, in her effort to persuade lawmakers to cut off funding for the war. That exchange was videotaped and played widely on YouTube. "You can't end the war if you vote against the supplemental. It's time these idiot liberals understand that," Obey told her during the exchange. He later apologized. "

Randy wrote on Apr 17, 2007 7:38 AM:

" Ummmmmm Pelosi. It's the "wag the dog" policy of the Republicans again. Republicans will be spending over a Trillion dollors of our money on the second Gulf War alone. Notice the Republicans refuse to spend the Trillion on Social Security or National Health Care. Republicans are nothing but War mongers selling Death and Insecurity and it's your own fault for backing them. "