The Democratic Contract On America

Startlingly good editorial in today's Investors Business Daily (subscription required, hat tip: Atlas Shrugs):

Diplomacy: “We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy,” a member of Nancy Pelosi’s Mideast entourage said. Problem is, it’s one applauded by terrorists around the world who couldn’t be happier she’s speaker of the House. We wonder what the media reaction would have been had Newt Gingrich traveled around the world in 1995 offering an alternative Republican foreign policy. Suppose he had, to cite just one example, condemned on foreign soil Bill Clinton’s shameful withdrawal from Somalia, which inspired Osama bin Laden to plan 9/11. At least Gingrich, unlike Pelosi, wouldn’t have been giving aid and comfort to America’s enemies. She advocates talking to Iran, which is building nukes to annihilate Israel and shipping advanced explosive devices to Iraq to kill British and U.S. troops. She advocates a date certain for throwing the people of Iraq to the Islamofascist wolves. Speaker Pelosi expressed the foolish thought that “the road to Damascus is the road to peace.” The road to Damascus is the road Syrian supply columns traveled bringing Iranian rockets and supplies plus a few goodies of their own to help Hezbollah attack Israel and plot the overthrow of Lebanon’s democracy. It was the body of that democracy that Pelosi tip-toed around to visit the killers of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, among others, who were dispatched by Syrian operatives. We wonder if Pelosi is malicious or merely naive. After all, last December she picked Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas to head the critical House Intelligence Committee, describing him as having “impeccable national security credentials.” But in a subsequent interview, Reyes couldn’t describe Hezbollah, the Iranian-created and supplied terrorist group that used Lebanon as a human shield in its war with Israel and which murdered 241 U.S. soldiers in Beirut in 1983. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who accompanied Pelosi, said during the group’s stop in Israel, “We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy.” And of the visit to Baathist thug Bashar Assad, Lantos said: “This is only the beginning of our constructive dialogue with Syria, and we hope to build on this visit.” Our dialogue? Read the Constitution and the law, Tom. We’re of a mind with Robert F. Turner, who served as acting assistant secretary of state under President Reagan. He suggests Pelosi et al. may have violated the Logan Act, which makes it a felony for any American, even one who is third in the line of presidential succession, to conduct foreign policy on their own initiative. The Logan Act provides a prison term of three years for anyone who “without the authority of the United States” communicates with a foreign government for the purpose of changing its policies regarding “disputes or controversies with the United States.” Patrick Fitzgerald, call your office. So who’s happy with Pelosi’s trip? Well, Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas’ military wing in the Gaza Strip. He said her trip to Syria “is proof of the importance of the resistance against the U.S.” He added that “Americans know and understand they are losing in Iraq and the Middle East and their only chance to survive is to reduce hostilities with Arab countries and with Islam.” Sharing the Islamofascist view that our “only chance to survive” is to have Pelosi negotiate the terms of our surrender is Jihad Jaara, senior member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. “I think she is very brave and hope all the people will support her,” he said. “All the American people must make peace with Syria and Iran and with Hamas.” Khaled Al-Batch, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, says “Nancy Pelosi understands the area well” and expressed the hope she would keep winning elections. Islamic Jihad’s chief, Ramadan Shallah, calls Syria home, as does Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. We didn’t see Tip O’Neill running to Moscow with “an alternative Democratic foreign policy” subverting Reagan’s confronting head-on what he called the “evil empire.” But then, Tip knew all politics was local and all foreign policy was the president’s responsibility. And O’Neill knew whose side he was on.

Would it be trite to say indeed?