Nancy's Shadow Government

In today’s information environment, any news more that 36 hours old is ancient history. The web is full of articles and posts about the Washington Post’s editorial on Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Syria. This story seems to have legs, albeit quiet ones. Of course most conservative blogs are happily lampooning Ms. Pelosi (and she’s a deserving target) or they are blasting her middle east trip. The crux of the Post story is that what Ms. Pelosi has done is essentially set up a shadow presidency. The Post calls that action foolish. I would choose the word treasonous.

The editorial readily acknowledges that it has its disagreements with the current administration. That may be the understatement of the year but this isn’t about MSM bias. Besides, the Post has to attack the left side once a quarter to maintain their veneer of objectivity. It’s in their contract.

Mrs. Pelosi has in recent weeks launched what right-wingers such as Rush Limbaugh predicted before the election. He would call this another, “See, I told you so.” Pelosi, Murtha, Reid, et al, are convinced that the election in November withdrew the power from President Bush and granted it to them en mass. There are several problems with that. First, it’s not legal. There is no mechanism for a national referendum. A duly elected president cannot be recalled like the mayor of Timbuktu. He can be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors but not for policy disagreements. And yet, the Democrats in congress have apparently decided to circumvent that troubling portion of the constitution and rule the country from the capitol.

The first step in this was the vote to defund the Global War on Terror. As a matter of fact, the House budget committee commanded that the phase “Global War on Terror” be stricken from all budget discussions. The Dems have usurped his responsibilities of the Commander in Chief and assumed that mantle themselves. Then Ms. Pelosi decided to channel Henry Kissinger.

She went to Israel and was apparently tolerated as one would tolerate a snobbish busybody. In fact, retrospect shows that to be the case. Then she scrambled to Damascus to cozy up to the dictator Assad. Of course no Democratic effort would be complete without the obligatory press conference to pat themselves on the back. That’s when Nancy’s charade started to fall apart. The Jerusalem government quickly came out and discounted her recollection of their meeting. Olmert never made any concessions that Mrs. Pelosi was to carry to Syria. Then Assad came out and called her lie as well. They have no intention of negotiating with the Israelis either.

I’m sure that there is confusion in the carbon offset smoke filled rooms. They followed the playbook to the tee. First, they cited the voter mandate and rejection of the failed policies of the Bush administration. Then they assumed responsibilities beyond their authority and circumvented his constitutional authority as commander in chief. Now they’ve attempted to establish their own foreign policy. This is nothing more than an attempt to establish a shadow government and is akin to declaring a coup.

The actions of the Democrats, and the Republicans that were on this trip too, are not foolish, ludicrous, or even counterproductive as the Post described them. They are certainly stupid as Limbaugh called them. But the adjectives that should be used are felonious, seditionist, and treasonous. Mrs. Pelosi should be impeached.