Shorter Bush on Syria trips: Democrat-bad, Republican-good

I've been doing Pelosi posts at the Detroit News where I'm in a little pissing contest with Jeffrey Hayden. I wish I had this item a couple of hours ago for my last post, but it may still come in handy if he responds. As I said in my first post, and we all know by now, there's a lot of Republicans running around Syria now too. But this is what we didn't know.

It now looks like the White House might have actually been helping these House Republicans arrange their trip to Syria at the same time they were criticizing Pelosi for going there...

While U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's upcoming visit to Syria has caused the White Houe to bristle, a little-publicized rendezvous took place Sunday between Syria's president and Lancaster County's congressman.

And though Bush administration officials have been criticizing Pelosi, it's not clear what role the White House and the U.S. Department of State played when U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts and two other Republican congressmen met with Syrian President Bassar Assad. Pitts is a Chester County Republican who represents Lancaster County.

Gabe Neville, Pitts' chief of staff, said Monday the conference between Assad and the three Republicans was intended to be "low profile."

"It was done in cooperation with the administration," he said.

So let me get this straight. When the Democratic Speaker of the House goes to Syria, it's bad because then Syria might think it's part of the mainstream international community. When the President sends Republican Congressmen go to Syria on a state visit, it's good, because what - Republicans are rude and will make them feel bad so they won't feel like part of the gang?

I have to ask why the White House would be sending low level Congressmen on state visits instead of the Speaker? As I pointed out to Jeffrey, it's not like Hastert had no role in foreign policy.

...Hastert as Speaker of the House dispatched a Congressional mission to Israel and Palestine during the last Israeli conflict with Lebanon and Bush sent Hastert to Baghdad on a surprise state visit to Iraq in June of 2006. This is addition to the delegation Hastert led in 2003 for surprise visits to the troops. And in 2002 Hastert visited the Prime Minister in Turkey so there is certainly historical precedent for the Speaker to be involved in these affairs.

And speaking of Turkey, whatever happened with those tapes that indicated Hastert had received "tens of thousands of dollars in surreptitious payments from Turkish interests in exchange for political favors and information," besides that Sibel Edmonds got fired for translating it correctly? Oh, now I remember - nothing.