And it was the worst thing ever:
“We do not encourage and, in fact, we discourage members of Congress to make such visits to Syria,” said White House deputy spokeswoman Dana Perino. “This is a country that is a state sponsor of terror, one that is trying to disrupt the (Prime Minister Fouad) Siniora government in Lebanon and one that is allowing foreign fighters to flow through its borders to Iraq.
“I don’t know what she is trying to accomplish, and I don’t know if anyone in the administration has spoken to her about it,” Perino said. “In general, we do discourage such trips.”
Of course, chickenshit Nancy Pelosi flew into Damascus on a luxury jet at taxpayer expense, while canny warrior Grandpa Walnuts “slipped across the border” according to a Daily Beast “exclusive” that was somehow reported independently by every other media outlet in the world.
RaflW
Manly man visits zone of strife = good. Ballsy woman visits = bad.
Reducto absurdum.
Violet
My favorite part of that image you clipped is the little photo of those morning idiots in the upper right corner with the caption: “Fox & Friends – Wake Up In The Know!” Made me chuckle.
Scott S.
I’d love to hear what Grampa Walnuts had to say about Pelosi’s trip.
Brendan in NC
@Scott S.: “You Damn kids get off my lawn!!!!
Higgs Boson's Mate
Dana Perino was the White House spokesperson who had never heard of the Cuban missile crisis and had no idea what happened at the Bay of Pigs.
mike with a mic
Fox News idiocy aside, I think it was dumb for both of them to go. This should be a job for the state department primarily, or the defense department depending on the how and the why. I’d hope Kerry and Hagel call up their old friend and tell him to knock this crap the fuck off before he makes it worse.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I don’t remember why Pelosi went. And I agree with @mike with a mic that visiting other countries in an official manner should be left up to the Executive branch.
Chris
@mike with a mic:
Amen to that.
If Congress wants to influence foreign policy, they can fucking pass legislation to that effect. Legislation, y’all, remember when you used to write that?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Chris:
I’m so old that I can remember when Congress wrote it and passed it.
Omnes Omnibus
@mike with a mic: @Chris: I don’t have a problem with Congress doing fact-finding trips. They are, after all, expected to legislate on related issues and should know what they are talking about. Trying to conduct a separate foreign policy is another matter.
mike with a mic
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
From time to time the executive branch will ask former politicians or members of the senate to go visit another country. For example trotting out Kerry and Webb to go to Nam, or sending Richardson to talk to Saddam. But this sort of thing is typically 100% at the request of the president, or say SECSTATE. But this is almost always done because the person requested has a personal relationship over there that can be used.
A member of congress just straight up going because they want to and talking to the government or armed combatants… well… they’re stepping all over the SECSTATE and SECDEF’s toes and really screwing their mission.
It’s also bad because it’s not congress decision to do this stuff. If McCain wants to get involved in Syria he can pass legislation to do that. If not well… talking to armed combatants and sneaking across borders is for Kerry and Hagel to deal with.
Redshirt
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I remember feeling concretely re-assured that Congressional Dems were getting involved in diplomatic efforts, given the non-stop fail parade that was the Bush Admin.
2006 saved us.
Also, IOKIYAR.
Gin & Tonic
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: I was up too early this morning. You can’t be serious with that, can you?
muddy
Maybe McCain “slipped in” with a lot of live fanfare hoping he would be attacked. In his mind he’d be a hero, and best of all he might actually get to go to Valhalla.
Shakezula
The idea that U.S. Congresscritters leave the country “in secret” is ridiculous. Square it if you need a Visa to enter your destination. Cube it if your destination is on the U.S. shit list.
It someone didn’t want Pelosi (or McCodger) to go to Syria, they would have gotten a phone call.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
In his 150 years in the Senate, has John McCain ever done one of those?
raven
@Gin & Tonic: Oh yea:
JPL
This is what happens when McCain is invited on his show Meet The Press.
Chyron HR
@Cacti:
In his 150 years in the Senate, has John McCain ever found one of those?
joes527
So I’m confused. Are we saying that Pelosi was wrong to go or that McCain is right to go?
mike with a mic
@Shakezula:
Sure a phone call, and then they would have still gone. It’s not as if our country doesn’t have a track record of various congressional critters or businesses conducting their own FP and not giving a shit about the executive. What’s Obama going to do, arrest him? It’s nice for McCain that the faction he visited agree’s with what he wants to do, arms and air strikes! Who’d have thunk that would have happened.
Forum Transmitted Disease
John McCain: an utter shitbag when a Dem is in charge, a little less of a whiny jerk when one of his fellow GOP lunatics is driving the doomed supertanker of fail that is 21st century America.
rb
@raven: Holy shit. It’s finally happened. A Bush flunky achieved incompetence so flagrant even I was legitimately shocked. Dear god.
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
He’s never done a fact finding trip, but he’s done plenty of “fact finding” trips, and even some “fact” finding trips.
JPL
If it were a democratic Senator, Fox headlines would be Senator.. xxx met with Al Qaeda operatives.
Redshirt
@joes527: I’m OK with it, given that what McCain thinks means fuck all.
mike with a mic
@joes527:
Most people are saying it’s bad for congress critters to try and run a shadow or alternate foreign policy than the current administration. And that this sort of work is usually for the state or defense departments. However most also agree it’s OK for congress to go on fact finding trips.
Whether or not you think they were trying to run an alternate FP, stepping on states toes, or doing actual fact finding is up to you. But when McCain has been on none stop about how we must arm the rebels and give them air support, and his trip comes back saying that more, then I don’t fully trust him. Fact finding is usually just finding out what’s going on and supplying numbers, not “they say they need air strikes, so we need to give them air support and bomb Hezbollah”.
maya
Gee, I hope he doesn’t get captured and wind up in the Damascus Motel Six.
Shakezula
@mike with a mic: Yep, it wasn’t a big deal when Pelosi went, even though the GOP (including B. Admin) tried to make it one. Not a big deal here. Except this trip comes with the amusement of watching the FSA play McCodger like Ma plays his favorite cello. “Iranians & Iraqis and Russkies, oh my!”
Schlemizel
@Cacti:
He did a multi-year one once to Vietnam, hung around there as a guest of the government.
Yeah, I know, extremely tasteless but I am sick to the teeth with this shit & the flaming shit heels that inflict it on us.
FAUX and Friends – Wake up in the know – turn on FAUX and know less and less every minute you are awake
Roger Moore
@maya:
Well, he may not be president, but he did stay in a
Holiday Inn ExpressHanoi Hiltonlast nightfor six years. BTW, did you know John McCain was a POW?Schlemizel
BTW – you know this is all Dancin Daves fault. If he had just had Grandpa Walnuts on ‘Press the Meat’ Sunday he would have had something more important than playing James Bond super commando.
@maya:
Well played, in before my shot at his time as a POW & well deserved. I like your subtle approach but when I am in a bad mood its meat clever all the way
rb
@maya: Wow, that was black as night. I like.
nineone
Oooh, oooh, I know this one. Hitler. Or Jesus. One of the two.
Maybe i should’ve said DiMaggio?
Eric U.
Pelosi going in peacetime and Grandpa Walnuts going during wartime is somewhat different. Walnuts probably would have been well advised to stay in one of his many mansions and left this kind of thing to people who know what they are doing.
Roger Moore
Unfortunately, John McCain seems most unlikely to have a Road to Damascus conversion on the issue of supporting every war that comes his way.
Maude
How much did this trip cost the taxpayers?
Forum Transmitted Disease
@Maude: This question needs to be beaten to death. Asked until people threaten to punch the questioner. Dems always get it in the neck with the “how much did this frivolous trip cost”, long past due for the Republicans to enjoy those questions.
japa21
IIRC, Pelosi’s trip was part of a bipartisan Congressional trip. They went to Israel first and then Syria. Pelosi got into hot water for passing along a private message from Israel which then became public. However, even Republicans on the trip defended her initially, until it became obvious they weren’t supposed to do so.
maya
Where’s Joe Lieberman on this junket? How will Johnny Mac know the difference between a Sunni, Shite or, to complicate things even further, an Alawite this time? The poor man’s brain must be approaching aneurysm alert.
Roger Moore
@Maude:
I’m sure that Sheldon Adelson picked up the tab out of his concern for saving taxpayers money.
Mandalay
@Redshirt:
Hardly. Susan Rice would probably be SoS right now if it wasn’t for McCain. He might be an asshole but he still has clout.
FlipYrWhig
@JPL: I think this means, by the rules of the War on Terror, that we get to detain Lindsey Graham indefinitely.
Villago Delenda Est
I know this is repetitive, that it’s trite, that it’s predictable.
But this is yet the umteenzillionth case of IOKIYAR.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
So “slipped across the border” is the new euphemism for crashing a plane into the country? I can’t believe Graham passed on a chance to be Grampa Walnuts’ wingman. There’s only so many more news cycles you can wring out of BENGHAZI!!!1!11! Lindsey.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Roger Moore: NO PRISONERS!!
Shortstop
@FlipYrWhig: Don’t do it. Dressing up in a ’60s uniform and pretending to be held at the Hanoi Hilton, refusing to talk, is Graham’s onlly reliable source of sexual gratification.
nineone
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Lindsey G. in the line of actual fire? Surely you jest. He might spill his cocktail.
That didn’t come out right.
Shit, neither did that.
Fuck it, bomb bomb bomb bomb-bomb Iran!
Corner Stone
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
I’m so confused. This whole time I thought it was a polite euphemism for sex.
catclub
@Corner Stone: Infiltration under darkness. Covert engagement.
No fly zone. Smart bombs.
I’ll be here all weak.
raven
@catclub: Limited incursion
Higgs Boson's Mate
As an ex military man McCain should know that penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@nineone: All the poor fella’s got the next few days is pictures of Grampy in his prime, his own JAG uniform, and when the moment comes, good old JSOC. Thanks, I’ll be here all week.
Corner Stone
@catclub: Carpet bombing. Targeted penetration. Bunker busters.
When they call it war pr0n they’re not freakin’ kidding!
Yatsuno
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: The double entendres are just gonna get worse from here aren’t they?
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Yatsuno: Do they ever get better?
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Corner Stone:
I’m certainly doing my part.
raven
@Corner Stone: The russians ship those missiles and the Israeli’s will light that shit up.
Frankensteinbeck
A lot depends on details. I don’t approve of Pelosi sabotaging the White House’s diplomatic efforts… if that’s what she did. From what I can see she did a basic Middle East tour, which is apparently not uncommon. One of her stops was Syria, which was peaceful at the time but the Bush government didn’t want to talk to. I’m putting that at ‘That is kinda tacky, Pelosi.’ McCain, on the other hand, went to a war zone that we are deliberately not getting involved in, met with one of the rebel groups, and told them that if HE were in charge the US would be backing them to the hilt. I’m putting that at ‘Not quite treason, but you truly are a little shit, John McCain.’
Like almost all ‘both sides do it’ claims, there’s a difference in scale so great that it’s a difference in kind.
Ted & Hellen
Grandpa Walnuts and Nancy Gloria Swanson Impeachment Is Off the Table Pelosi need to stay the fuck out of international affairs.
Patricia Kayden
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: I see. She was very qualified then. No wonder they love her on Fox News.
Patricia Kayden
@japa21: Thanks for the context. If it was a bipartisan trip, why did Fox News only pick on Pelosi? Hmmmm.
Mandalay
@Ted & Hellen:
Yes indeed. Look at what has happened just one day after McCain’s shit stirring:
I look forward to the Sunday talk shows asking “hothead” McCain whether he should now become a drone target since he is obviously an enemy of America.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ted & Hellen: Congress has no responsibility for international affairs? Declaring war? Funding Defense and State? I agree that they should not be conducting foreign policy, but they have a responsibility be informed about what is going on.
nineone
@Ted & Hellen: Well at least she was asked.
scav
If that miserable git had indeed been president, we’d probably be slightly low on soldiers to send over to this particular event. Down to our crack teams of armed toddlers very likely, but at least we’d be putting their “accidents” to some economically-sanctified “highest and best use”.
Roger Moore
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
I thought it was the Dread Pirate Roberts who didn’t take prisoners.
MomSense
This thread needs a safe word!
Roger Moore
@MomSense:
Green balloons!
nineone
Oh I get it. Sorry, folks. It was just an excuse for the Democratic stalwart to take yet another shot at his own side. Just like all principled Democrats should. Follow the leader, sheeple.
Mike in NC
Hopefully McPOW will wander into a minefield and we’ll never have to hear from him again.
Roger Moore
@Mike in NC:
It would be better if he were beheaded on YouTube by some of the rebels who are aligned with AQ. That way, we’d not only be done with McCain, we’d have a sign of how much we don’t want to arm the rebels.
mainmati
@RaflW: Latin grammar police: it’s Reductio ad absurdum. But I agree with your sentiment. Also too IOKIYAR.
StringOnAStick
I’m sure the Israeli government is watching this closely, if not sending approval and attaboy notes to McFlyboy. Hezbollah and ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ figure prominently here.
Shakezula
@scav: Do you think toddlers would be deployed before or after President McCodger’s Mandatory Patriotism for Prisoners program didn’t work as planned?
Citizen_X
SECURE THE BORDER! FINISH THE DANGED FENCE!
Suffern ACE
I’m interested in the polling on this issue elsewhere. Do any of the so called democracies have enough internal support at this point to do anything by push out more arms? I’m so happy that Russia and Turkey have taken sides, and of course, now that the UK and France have convinced the EU to lift its arms embargo, its only a matter of time before they are openly sending more weapons. But does anyone have any support to do something to shift the outcome directly? Or is the US supposed to just take the hit internally. I don’t think this would be a popular intervention at all on the US part. Another “we’re here to prop up another third rate corrupt leader” in the name of saving the mideast from itself would be toxic.
Corner Stone
@StringOnAStick:
“I’d get the Sharia and the Snookies in a room and tell ’em to cut out the bullshit.”
SRW1
Did McCain take Joe Lieberman along for the trip? I mean, somebody’s gotta make sense for McCain with this confusing Sunni/Shiite stuff.
Corner Stone
@Suffern ACE:
Russia is pro-ruling govt and Turkey is supportive…of…oh.
Shit.
Citizen_X
@SRW1: I want Mike Pence to tag along again, and burble, “Oh, it’s just like a Indiana farmer’s market, derpity-derpity-derp.”
@Corner Stone: What could possibly go wrong? I mean, besides WWIII.
Suffern ACE
@Corner Stone: Yeah. Shit is right. 21st century, and we have ottomans, russians, french and british all happily reconfiguring to refight the crimean wars. This time with the persians and the arabs, jews and americans. Polish-Lithuania and Saxony will be decisive this time. I’m sure of it.
Corner Stone
@Suffern ACE:
Considering the extreme austerity in some of those areas I’m surprised they haven’t already started the extreme propaganda making someone the worst boogeyman since the Kaiser.
Nothing works like a good govt jobs program combined with a reduction in population.
Just One More Canuck
It looks like The Onion has started doing hard news:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/family-concerned-after-john-mccain-wanders-into-sy,32601/