Breaking: Big News Org Reports Aggressively On GOP Attacks Over Pelosi's Syria Trip!

[babylonsister]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/04/breaking_big_ne.php

Breaking: Big News Org Reports Aggressively On GOP Attacks Over Pelosi's Syria Trip!
April 09, 2007 -- 11:07

I meant to flag this piece on the Pelosi-to-Syria flap over the weekend and didn't get a chance, so let me share it with you now.

As you know, the other day we unearthed some pretty revealing past quotes from GOP House leader John Boehner. Though Boehner is now one of the people leading the assault on Nancy Pelosi's trip, it turned out he went along on then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich's efforts to meddle in foreign policy by taking a trip to China in 1997, and at the time even praised the Gingrich trip as "very educational."

Now The New York Times has picked up on Boehner's 1997 quotes in this piece on the Syria flap. But that's not the main reason the piece is important. Rather, it's the only piece journalism I've been able to find which is a stand-alone article devoted mainly to a rundown on all the chief ways that the GOP's stoking of the Syria flap is riddled with hypocrisy and glaring inconsistencies. It says:

The tone of the complaints — particularly Vice President Dick Cheney’s public characterization of her visit as “bad behavior” — contrasts sharply with the administration’s silence about a similar trip to Damascus a week ago by Republican lawmakers, Representatives Frank R. Wolf of Virginia, Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Robert B. Aderholt of Alabama.

Nor was there much heard from the White House about a meeting that Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, had with Mr. Assad on Thursday, a day after Ms. Pelosi met with the Syrian president...

Democrats say the complaints have a certain political expediency to them, and note that many of the same people criticizing Ms. Pelosi’s decision to delve into foreign policy were fine when Newt Gingrich, then the Republican speaker of the House, made his own foray into foreign policy back in 1997.

The Republican House leader, John A. Boehner of Ohio, criticized Ms. Pelosi’s trip, telling reporters that she was in Syria “for one reason, and that is to embarrass the president.” In 1997, Mr. Boehner accompanied Mr. Gingrich to China, and called the trip “very educational.”

Look, it's a bit irksome that the Times needs to say that "Democrats" note that this is the case: For one thing, this is a matter of objective fact, not partisan accusation. What's more, this blog reported this; Democrats didn't. And as Josh said yesterday, there tons more on this story that's crying out for real reporting.

Still, The Times piece is definitely noteworthy, if only for what it says about the media's uniformly awful performance on this story. The fact that it took days and days and days before a big news org got around to doing a story like this -- then buried it on page 5 and slugged it a "Washington memo" -- really is nothing short of incredible, when you step back and ponder it for a sec. But something is better than nothing at all, and it would be nice if CNN's reporters, editors and producers -- not to say the good people at the other big news orgs, too -- checked it out and asked themselves why the heck they're doing such a crappy job on this story when it's plainly obvious how bogus the GOP's assault really is.


Update: I was remiss in not pointing this out earlier, but don't miss Jamison Foser's wrap-up of CNN's coverage of the Pelosi trip. Foser aptly notes that not long ago Wolf Blitzer patted CNN on the back as a "serious news organization" that "went to check out the facts" to debunk the bogus Muslim-school smear of Barack Obama. How about showing a spark of ambition on the Pelosi story, then?

[Kagemusha]

1. What burns me is that Olmert (Israel PM)'s office legitimized this.

I'm sure that's providing huge cover to the media for taking this with seriousness.... and from what I've read on TPM, everyone who personally knew what Pelosi was told said she got it right. That irks me. That means the PM's office made it up after the WH got a hold of it and told Olmert's people to get with the program.

[lyonn]

5. Omert has proved he is a bush toadie.

He, like our President, has no class or comprehension of the hazards of bashing our Learder of the House of Representatives. After all, she is a working part of our government representing The People. I feel sure Omert was following the bushies' orders in making his statement to the world.

[Kagemusha]

7. There is no hazard. It is wrong, but he won't suffer for it

What's Pelosi going to do to Israel to retaliate? Huh? Nothing. Nothing at all. I just choose not to dwell on the point. I'm not blind to it.

[Double T]

2. Just another RW corporate owned and operated MSM smear job.......

on the Madam Speaker. Nancy Pelosi is making the WH look like the incompetents that they are.

[LSparkle]

3. Why aren't they mentioning HASTERT's trip to Colombia

while Clinton was president? I've heard he actually told the Colombian government that they didn't need to negotiate with the Clinton Administration, but could deal directly with the Rethug-controlled Congress ... ?????

[babylonsister]

4. Because we rarely revisit history; only rethugs do when the clenis is concerned. nt

[irish.lambchop]

6. Any links about that?

I can't seem to find anything online about hastert's trip to Colombia back then. Would love to send this out if I can find the info.

[LSparkle]

8. I heard about it on Thom Hartmann's show

I'm not positive he was Speaker at the time but even if not, he was definitely speaking for the DeLay/Gingrich cabal in encouraging Colombia to deal with Congress and ignore Clinton.

[irish.lambchop]

9. Thanks!

I'll email Thom Hartmann (my hero of liberal radio)!

[cosmicdot]

10. try this

I'm sure this was in a DU thread

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/04/hastert-colombia


FLASHBACK: Hastert Traveled Abroad, Told Foreign Leaders Not To Listen To Clinton


the link at thinkprogress is

http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB69/part3.html

scroll down about 1/2 page under Document 52


One example of this was a congressional delegation led by Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) which met with Colombian military officials, promising to “remove conditions on assistance” and complaining about “leftist-dominated” U.S. congresses of years past that “used human rights as an excuse to aid the left in other countries.” Hastert said he would to correct this situation and expedite aid to countries allied in the war on drugs and also encouraged Colombian military officials to “bypass the U.S. executive branch and communicate directly with Congress.”

[babylonsister]

11. Here's the DU thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3197840