Speaker Pelosi Should Not Be Condemned

In the midst of the my own personal drama, I have been following another type of brouhaha--of the national kind. It seems that Madame Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has been under fire for visiting with Syrian President Basshar Assad last week. With a contingent of Congress, Ms. Pelosi went there to promote the policies of the United States and engage in talks with the country.

However, on right wing radio, cable and television news, the pundits have been sounding off. The Vice-President Dick Cheney even chided the California Congresswoman for "stepping out of turn" in her trip to the Middle East.

With all the scuttlebutt knocking her around these past few days, she should be cut a little slack. Ms. Pelosi is doing her job. She is trying to make inroads where the present Administration will not: to engage in diplomacy instead of having a "scorched earth" policy. She's taking the right tactic. After all, Mr. Bush and his cronies have not been rather forthright about solving things diplomatically these days. What is especially unfortunate, is that they have continued to beat the drum on stirring things up with Iran in an adversarial manner.

But, it all comes down to this: Ms. Pelosi is the first woman Speaker of the House. She has elevated herself to a position that has been historically populated by males. She is a pioneer. But, it's not to say that her position is very easy. Because she has taken very hard stands that reflect her new leadership status, she has been knocked about by the men of Congress. Unfortunately, the old boy's club of Washington is still getting used to having a woman (and a liberal one at that) wield power and politics without being beholden to the "puppet strings" of PNAC cronies and old right wing war hawks.

What about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, you say? She's a woman. She's in a powerful position. Right you are. But, the difference between Ms. Pelosi and Dr. Rice is that the Secretary of State still does unquestionably the bidding of the President. She has not gone forth on her own to do anything different. In fact, her power is being held on a string. And when she does "speak out of turn", she retreats and defers to Mr. Bush and Co.

Ms. Pelosi does not do that. She is able to not only promote the best that America has to offer; she tries to be her own woman.

And she doesn't have to mistakenly call the President, "her husband" to do it. ;)