GOP congressman visits Syria while his party criticizes Pelosi for doing the same

As you know, Nancy Pelosi is now the #3 person in US Government, behind Bush and Cheney. As such, she has announced that she will meet with the President of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad. Republicans have complained about Pelosi's planned visit.

And guess what? They're being hypocritical.

While U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's upcoming visit to Syria has caused the White House 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.

(snip)

The House Speaker's office criticized the Bush administration for focusing their criticisms — until Monday — on Pelosi, the top House Democrat, for leading a congressional delegation to meet with Assad later this week.

"There's a Republican trip going before her, and no one is criticizing that," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said. "So clearly the White House's motives here are in question."

Oh quit whining, Republicans. If Americans wanted another do-nothing Congress, they would've voted Republican. Pelosi's doing her job. Don't like it? Tough.

Bits of Tid: February 23, 2007

Third day of Lent. Hope to see some of you at the convention tomorrow.

• Trailing three other Democrats in his home state, and lacking sufficient funds to continue his campaign, Tom Vilsack is out of the running. The first candidate to drop out of the 2004 Democratic competition, Bob Graham, didn't do so until that fall.
• State Senate Democratic Leader Mark Schauer is wondering whiat I've been wondering: Where's the GOP plan for fixing the state's budget situation?
• Dick Cheney says Nancy Pelosi wants to "validate" Al-Qaida's strategy. If you think Bush is bad, he's a saint compared to the man who's just one heartbeat away from the presidency (no pun intended). Oh well, only 697 days until Bush and Cheney are gone.
• Again, so much for the GOP supporting our troops, past and present. Things are also bad at Walter Reed; more on that in a few days.
• Former state Sen. Gary Peters (D) - who briefly ran for governor in 2001-02 before dropping out of that race to instead run for Attorney General (a race he lost to Mike Cox by oh, so few votes) - may run for Congress against Joe Knollenberg in Michigan's 9th District.
• Not really a single-state recession, huh MIGOP?
• Former US Reps. Arlen Erdahl (R-MN, 1979-83) and Michael Forbes (D-NY, 1995-2001) are coming to CMU on Monday.
• CMU's student paper has the latest on a couple of recent fires in Wheeler Hall, the most populous residence hall on campus. I lived on the eighth floor of Wheeler last year.

Bits of Tid: January 20, 2007

Every so often I come across news items that I want to include in this blog, but I don't feel deserve their own separate entry. Plus, I occasionally see a few cool links on the web that I also believe don't deserve their own blog entry. Bits of Tid is the name I have chosen for my new periodical series that focuses on these news items and other sorts of fun info. ('Bits of Tid' comes from separating the word 'tidbits' into two seperate syllables - 'tid bits' - and adding the word 'of.')

And with 731 days (exactly two years - including the leap day on 2/29/08) left until America gets a new president, I am pleased to launch the first ever edition of Bits of Tid!

• First of all, as you can tell I have finally fulfilled the promise I made last month and revamped this blog. No longer is it named Scott Does Politics; earlier this week I renamed it Great Lakes, Great Times, Great Scott. That is taken from a couple of LiberalLucy's suggestions. I have also changed the template and added a few links on the sidebar. Hope you enjoy it!
  
  
• One of the new links is the new 'watch blog' I started a few weeks ago focusing on US Rep. Vern Ehlers. I am collaborating with a few other writers from the Grand Rapids area in Eye on Ehlers.
  
  
• Matt (from CMU's College Dems) and I worked hard yesterday to start the new blog of CMU's College Democrats, Blue Chips ('Blue' for Democratic Blue and 'Chips' for Chippewas).
  
  
• Speaker Pelosi's website discusses the accomplishments Democrats have made since taking charge. They got through their 100 hour plan in less than fifty hours!
  
  
• Either Wesley Clark, Aaron Gandhi, or Sanjay Gupta will likely come to CMU soon. (BTW: Here's CM Life's writeup of Jesse Jackson's visit on Tuesday.)
  
  
• I would like to buy a digital camera in the not-too-distant future. If you hve any suggestions as to what kind to get or where to get one, please share.

Under Democratic control, 110th Congress hits the ground running

How sweet it was to watch the 110th Congress of the United States convene yesterday, with Democrats in control for the first time in twelve years.

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA; pictured) was elected the first female Speaker of the House. Because the Speaker of the House is second in line to become president after the VP, Pelosi is closer to becoming President than any other woman has ever come (although I'm pretty certain she will not run for that post.) Now if only there can be a Lewinsky-esque scandal so we can impeach them or they can resign... Hey, one can hope. (Read the transcript of Pelosi's address on becoming Speaker.)

In the Senate, Harry Reid (D-NV) became the new Majority Leader, while Mitch McConnell (R-KY) replaces former senator Bill Frist as Republican Leader. Here's a
transcript of Reid's Opening Speech. Meanwhile, Vice President Cheney gave the oath of office to 10 new senators and 23 Senators who were re-elected in November, including Debbie Stabenow and Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile the Democrats say they plan to hit the ground running on ethics reform, health care, renewable energy... oh, and by the way, Iraq.

Now, skeptics may say that, because Bush still has the power to veto legislation, the Democrats will have little power. First, when the Democrats pass legislation through Congress and fsend it to the White House, one of three things will happen:

1. Bush will sign it.
2. Bush will veto it, but the veto will be overridden.
3. Bush will veto it, and Republicans will stop it from being overridden. If this is the case, then Republicans such as John McCain and Sam Brownback - both of whom are likely candidates for President - will be on record opposing ideas that are likely to be popular.

Second, the GOP Congress has consistently given Bush a 'blank check' to do whatever he wants. If Bush wanted it, Congress gave it to him. With Democrats in charge, he will not be able to get what he wants as easily as he used to. This is what James Madison and the framers of the Constitution desired when they implemented the system of checks and balances into our Constitution.