Posted on 04/04/2007 7:57:52 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Three Republican congressmen who parted with President Bush by meeting with Syrian leaders said Wednesday it is important to maintain a dialogue with a country the White House says sponsors terrorism.
"I don't care what the administration says on this. You've got to do what you think is in the best interest of your country," said Rep. Frank Wolf (news, bio, voting record), R-Va. "I want us to be successful in Iraq. I want us to clamp down on Hezbollah."
Washington accuses Syria of backing Hamas and Hezbollah, two groups it deems terrorist organizations. The Bush administration also says Syria is contributing to the violence in Iraq by allowing Sunni insurgents to operate from its territory and is destabilizing Lebanon's government.
Bush sharply criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., for leading a delegation to meet with Syria's president, Bashar Assad.
The White House, however, stayed relatively quiet about a similar trip just a few days earlier by Wolf and GOP Reps. Robert Aderholt (news, bio, voting record) of Alabama and Joseph Pitts (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania.
Returning on Wednesday, the lawmakers said they made clear to Assad that they support Bush and were not representing the administration. But they said they felt it was important to keep open lines of communication.
"This is an area where we would disagree with the administration," Aderholt said. "None of us in the Congress work for the president. We have to cast our own votes and ultimately answer to our own constituents. ... I think there's room that we can try to work with them as long as they know where we draw the line."
A White House spokesman, Alex Conant, said the administration tries to deter lawmakers from both parties from engaging Assad.
"We discourage all visits to Syria because it's a state sponsor of terror," he said. "A lot of officials have gone, and it hasn't changed the Syrians' behavior."
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Associated Press writer Kimberly Hefling contributed to this report.
Wondering why we haven’t bombed them back to the Stone Age yet.
Talk doesn’t achieve anything but more talk. Talk creates confusion. Talk creates assinine rules. Talk makes one hoarse. Talk is a waste of time.
All of them are running around with the mistaken belief that they represent the will of the American People. they are wrong. When Polosi says she is doing what the American People want she is either stupid, or believes we are too stupid to know the difference.
There is only one person in the whole world who represents the will of the American People. None of these A$$HOLES was elected by the majority of Americans. The Constitution grants only the Executive Branch to represent us to foreign nations. The Constitution also allows the President the authority to appoint any American Citizen to represent us in his place, but the Executive Branch told them not to go so they had no Constitutional authority to meet with anyone outside of this country and claim to represent the American People.
Now as American Citizens all of them had the right to go anywhere and meet with whoever they wanted to but only as an ordinary US Citizen who has no say over US Policy. Since they are not within the scope of their office WE SHOULD NOT BE PAYING FOR IT!!!!
If these people wanted to go as members of Congress, then they should have gone to the people who they represent and then had them vote on a bond to finance it.
I didn't vote for any of those people, they don't represent me or anybody who lives in my state but I'm expected to pay for it.
The guilty must be chastised, else pretty soon everyone runs amok and you’ve got a revolution. Everywhere I look the nuts are coming loose on our political machine.
“This is an area where we would disagree with the administration,” Aderholt said. “None of us in the Congress work for the president. We have to cast our own votes and ultimately answer to our own constituents. ... I think there’s room that we can try to work with them as long as they know where we draw the line.”
So join the State Dept,if you want to go negotiate with foreign countries. Last time I checked the first job of a member of the House of Reps. is to take care of US business not foreign policy. These clowns can’t even get our immigration situation straightend out but they have time to go stick their noses in the Syrian issue !!!
Until now I figured most people here had some level of intellect.
After reading your post and 3 years of reading this website, I now understand what kind of people I am dealing with.
Possibly because the news channels weren't following their every move and splashing it all over the news so they could score political points like Nancy was trying to do.
I wouldn’t know, don’t watch TV.
Funny how the tard respond before he could possibly have had enough time to read Sgt. York’s links.
God forbid the poor dweebil should learn something!!
Generation “Hook Up”!!
It’s all about now, no compass, no intelligence, no morals, no direction.
Aderholt is my Congressman. I just sent him some hate-mail over the trip to Syria.
Absolutely.
Most unfortunate you have to stoop to a discussion of level of intellect.
Have you any idea the history of Islam relative to other religions, societies throughout this World? Have you no knowledge of the Slave Trade past or present? Have you a clue as to the beginning of our Navy? How ‘bout why the Marine Corp sings of the shores of Tripoli?
Excellent question...Tis bad policy to ignore the mantra of keep your friends close, but your enemies closer...
You're talking about 8th century heathens who need a bath and a shave and use their own bodies as explosives.
The only dialogue is a gunshot to the temple.
m3d1um, one of the basic tenets of dealing with people like Assad is that they view a willingness to talk about finding common ground and working out solutions to problems as WEAKNESS.
You make the mistake of thinking of this man in Western terms. This is the son of a man who murdered, in one fell swoop, 20,000 to 40,000 of his own people in a cold blooded massacre and razing of a Hama, a city in Syria. After bombing it to rubble and sending in his troops to kill anything that moved, they used cyanide gas to kill anyone still alive in the rubble, and then flattened what was left with bulldozers.
The apple does not fall far from the tree.
They do not make foreign policy and for them to think they have a right to disavow the prerogative of the Executive Branch is TREASON!
the pubbie party is going to implode.
Wow, is that what the Bush Administration says?!
So what's the Bush Administration gonna DO about it?!
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