NANCY PELOSI GOES TO SYRIA. WINGNUTS GO INTO ORBIT

Is there a story in the fact that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a congressional delegation on a fact-finding trip to the Middle East that will include Syria, a country the Bush Regime accuses of all kinds of things? The Bush Regime thinks so and their propaganda arm is out screaming that the sky is falling. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "probably really wants people to come, and have a photo opportunity, and have tea with him, and have discussions about where they're coming from. But we just think it's a really bad idea," according to Bush's current spokesperson, Dana Perino. Bad, Nancy! Bad! Why do you people need fact when you have the Bush Team to supply for whatever facts you need?

The State Department gave Pelosi's staff a pre-trip briefing and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad-- yes Bush still has an Embassy there-- is assisting. Among the congressmembers accompanying the Speaker are Congress' first Muslim member, Keith Ellison (MN), two Jewish members, Henry Waxman (CA) and Tom Lantos (CA) and a Bush rubber stamp Republican from Ohio, David Hobson. (Why do I call Hobson a Bush rubber stamp? Of the 44 votes related to Iraq between October 10, 2002 and May 25, 2005, Hobson voted the Bush line every single time. Not once did he ask himself if this knee-jerk support for Bush's policies might not be what his constituents in Springfield or in the suburbs of Columbus and Dayton might think about the escalating and catastrophic war he was blithely supporting.)

So what's the story? Probably just another story about more Bush Regime hypocrisy. Why hypocrisy? There's an all-Republican congressional delegation in Syria right now. It's led by Bush rubber stamp Frank Wolf (R-VA) and includes Bush rubber stamp Bob Aderholt (R-AL).


Tomorrow Speaker Pelosi is addressing the Israeli Knesset and she has pointed out that her stop in Syria is in line with the unanimous, bipartisan recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, recommendations that Bush has completely ignored. (He seems to have a visceral disdain for anything with the word "study" in it, a reaction that goes back to earliest childhood.) "As recommended by the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan delegation led by Speaker Pelosi intends to discuss a wide range of security issues affecting the United States and the Middle East with representatives of governments in the region, including Syria,'' is what Pelosi's office said to the press.


The right-wing press propagandists for Bush have, predictably, gone batshit crazy over the trip screaming like chimpanzees that Pelosi is giving aid and comfort to the enemy. If you want a sample, here's Tammy Bruce, one of the least intelligent of the right wing propagandists anywhere. After quoting the White House saying Speaker Pelosi's trip is "a really bad idea," a fuming and laughable Tammy went on one of her switched-on tirades:

Absolutely the most juvenile, asinine thing I've ever heard. A really bad idea?! That's the most they can come up with? The reason the president, and consequently this nation, is in such trouble is because neither the president nor the Republicans behave as though they have the moral high ground, or are even defending themselves or their policies enough to break a sweat.

How dare Pelosi give extraordinary legitimacy to a terrorist nation whose own foreign policy rests on the murder of Christian leaders in the region. And how dare the Bush Administration for not saying something as simple as just that.

And if you like reading this kind of uninformed right-wing blather, as stupid as Tammy Bruce is, few are as vitriolic and filled with pure hatred as GOP blogger Sister Toldjah. You wanna know what's in the craniums of that 28% of dead-enders who still think Bush is doing a good job? Sister Toldjah is the place to look; you'll never find someone more driven by hatred, ignorance and delusion: "Also, exactly what are Pelosi and co. planning on discussing with Assad? Maybe when Rep. Hobson leaves the meeting for a restroom break, the remaining group who are all Democrats will work to undermine the Bush administration's policies... Can we question their patriotism now?" Yes, honey, you can question whatever you like; make sure the tinfoil hat is on straight.

No wonder fewer and fewer people are paying these lunatics any attention. For the Bush Regime and their lackeys this kind of reaction is par for the course, tactics they've used before.


ANOTHER LONG-TIME BUSH SUPPORTER HAS HAD ENOUGH

I don't think he heard the Blue America campaign theme song from last year but Texas Bush loyalist Matthew Dowd-- a member of the Bush inner circle for almost a decade-- has called it quits and went to the NY Times with his story. Instead of playing politics-as-usual with congressional good-will trips and catering to the narrow bigotry on the outer fringes of the GOP, Bush and Rove should be paying attention to serious and well-informed-- if self-serving-- figures like Dowd. "Dowd’s journey from true believer to critic in some ways tracks the public arc of Mr. Bush’s political fortunes... Dowd said he had become so disillusioned with the war that he had considered joining street demonstrations against it, but that his continued personal affection for the president had kept him from joining protests whose anti-Bush fervor is so central. Mr. Dowd, 45, said he hoped in part that by coming forward he would be able to get a message through to a presidential inner sanctum that he views as increasingly isolated. But, he said, he holds out no great hope."