Pundits pile on Pelosi

It's no surprise that Bush's few remaining true believers, and the steno press that breathlessly reports their every word verbatim, have worked themselves into a frothing hysteria over Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria. It beats the heck out of focusing on the administration's many glaring failures. One might think even they are tired of hearing themselves mouth the same empty platitudes about the "signs of success" of Bush's failed foreign policies. Their fatigue is almost palpable as the echo chamber empties and even stalwart supporter Fred Barnes can't seem to muster his former enthusiam, as evidenced by today's half-hearted rehash of yesterday's RNC talking points on Nancy's trip.

Yes, we can all agree that it's the President's perogative to make foreign policy and take the lead in diplomatic relations. But it's the Congress' constitutional responsibility to become informed about the policy options through on the ground contact. As Scott Lilly points out at Center for American Progress[via]:

Congress cannot meet that obligation by sitting behind their desks in the Capitol and receiving briefings (from the executive branch) on how effective their strategies are or how well they are executing them. They need to get out and kick the tires.

And sometimes they might even need to recharge the battery:

In the administration’s perverse view, the only legitimate time for negotiations would be after the most contentious and difficult issues — Syria’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah, its meddling in Lebanon and open border with Iraq — have already been resolved. Thus, what ought to be the main agenda points for diplomatic discussions have been turned into a set of preconditions designed to ensure that no discussions ever take place.

Pelosi wasn't over-reaching, she was reaching out, there's a difference and as far as violating the Logan Act, Mahablog notices that there has been only one indictment and no convictions under the Logan Act since 1803. Not to mention, if Pelosi is in violation, so are hundreds of other Congressman. Maha cites Hastert's adventures in foreign policy adventurism in Colombia while Glenn Greenwald is digging up other culpable culprits -- oh look, there's Newt Gingrich making foreign policy pronouncements all over the globe.

It's almost amusing to watch the usual suspects add their own foot stamping to the Imperial temper tantrum; that's their job. What rankles is that the major media follows suit instead of doing theirs by putting the rightwing wailing into context. You have to wonder why it's the putrid pundits who are pulling down the big bucks for carrying the murky White House water, when it's the bloggers who are doing all the heavy lifting in clarifying the facts.