Madam Speaker Quits Speaking

"I have made the statement I am going to make on this. I don't have anything more to say about it."

Republicans have asked for the interrogation briefing memos to be declassified. Obama has selectively declassified some. Thursday, House Democrats blocked a Republican effort to form a special committee to investigate Pelosi's allegation that CIA officials misled her.

The speaker said she does not intend to continue discussing the matter publicly. At the end of a news conference on accomplishments of the Democratic Congress, she stammered her way to her newly found rectitude.

Pelosi then decide to get 12 time zones removed from Washington and go for a week-long trip to China. No doubt the air force will be flying her there.

Cheney Strikes Back at Pelosi-Obama

Right on. (I hate that affected Britishism,"spot-on")

UPDATE: Cheney cleaned Obama's Mickey Mouse watch. The press is in high gear defending Obama, but they know Cheney nailed his skinny ass. The beat goes on.

What Will Pelosi Do if She Gets Good News in Iraq?

Just a thought, but what does Speaker Pelosi do if she gets good news in Iraq?

____________

Pelosi in talks with Iraqi PM
17/05/2008 20:07 - (SA)

Baghdad - US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi held talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Saturday as his troops pressed a major crackdown on al-Qaeda jihadists, officials said.

The Iraqi premier flew to the capital from the northern city of Mosul where he had been directing the latest offensive against what the US military regards as the last urban bastion of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The US congressional leader, who flew in to Baghdad on Saturday on a unannounced visit, discussed with Maliki the October provincial elections, state Iraqia television said.

"He talked about elections that will be held in October and he assured us that it will be a fair election," the television quoted Pelosi as saying.

"It will also support Iraqi national unity."

Maliki's office said Peloso "renewed US support" for his government and declared that Washington "would stand by efforts to achieve security and stability and ensure national reconciliation in Iraq."

There was no immediate word from Pelosi's side on the outcome of the talks.

Pelosi's Time Has Passed. She Will Not Recover.

Pelosi's judgment questioned over Armenia issue

By Susan Cornwell Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Nancy Pelosi's pledge of a new direction took a detour when she fumbled an Armenian genocide resolution and raised questions about her leadership as the highest ranking member of the U.S. Congress.

Pelosi, 67, speaker of the House of Representatives and next in line to the presidency after the vice president, swore she would push the controversial resolution to a vote, then blinked when some fellow Democrats withdrew their support in the face of furious reaction from Turkey.

President George W. Bush warned the symbolic resolution to affirm the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide would harm Washington's relations with Ankara. But as long as it looked like it would pass, Pelosi stuck to her guns.

When Democratic support started waning last week amid protests from NATO ally Turkey -- which denounced the measure as "insulting" and hinted at halting logistical support for the U.S. war effort in Iraq -- Pelosi wavered.

Critics say she miscalculated.

"It's certainly not her finest moment," said Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"There's been no great harm done, but we do have to find some ways to mend the U.S.-Turkish relationship."

Turkey accepts that many Armenians were killed in World War One, but denies they were victims of a systematic genocide.

Pelosi took office amid much fanfare 10 months ago. She proposed "a new direction" for America and vowed to challenge Bush on a host of fronts, including the Iraq war.

Her stumble on the Armenia resolution gave Republican critics more ammunition.

They called the bill another "irresponsible" or "dangerous" foreign policy gambit by Pelosi, who flew to Syria last spring when the White House was not on speaking terms with Damascus.

Pelosi also has tried for months without success to defy Bush's policy on Iraq with legislation forcing a withdrawal of U.S. troops.

NO 'DAMN ALLIES'

Even some of Pelosi's closest allies, like Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, say she misjudged the Armenian resolution.

Murtha, who opposes the measure on the grounds the United States doesn't have any "damn allies" and therefore needs to keep Turkey on its side, counted up to 60 Democratic votes against it and said it would fail if brought up.

Pelosi is one of several Californians in Congress with many Armenian-Americans in their districts. They have pushed similar proposals for years.

"She feels morally committed to this issue," said Murtha. "It's just, is it practical at this point to go forward with it?"

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich offered another excuse for Pelosi's misstep: she had too much on her plate.

This week House Democrats also tried and failed to override Bush's veto on a children's health program. A bill to revise rules for government eavesdropping on terrorism suspects had to be pulled from the floor at the last minute.

"The pace of this institution is not always conducive to a well-thought-out approach, to considering the consequences of a certain type of action," Kucinich said.

Pelosi still has not ruled out calling a full House vote on the Armenian resolution, which the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed on October 10.

Some conservative commentators suggested the genocide measure was part of a hidden Democratic agenda to undermine the Iraq war effort, but other analysts said that was unlikely.

"I think it's more domestic politics, playing to interest groups, than backdoor foreign policy," said George Washington University professor of international affairs Henry Nau.

"If members of Congress are plotting with interest groups to weaken Turkish support of U.S. policy in Iraq and thus undermine American forces in Iraq, the drama thickens beyond my capacity to comprehend," he said.

Stupidity over Conspiracy, Incompetence over Cunning?

"Is the Armenian resolution her (Pelosi's) way of unconsciously sabotaging the U.S. war effort, after she had failed to stop it by more direct means? I leave that question to psychiatry. Instead, I fall back on Krauthammer's razor (with apologies to Occam): In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit."- Charles Krauthammer

October 19, 2007
Pelosi's Armenian Gambit
By Charles Krauthammer Real Clear Politics

There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian genocide.

• (a) Did it happen?

• (b) Should the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on this now?

• (c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's determination to bring this to a vote, knowing that it risked provoking Turkey into withdrawing crucial assistance to American soldiers in Iraq, a conscious (columnist Thomas Sowell) or unconscious (blogger Mickey Kaus) attempt to sabotage the U.S. war effort?

The answers are:

• (a) Yes, unequivocally.

• (b) No, unequivocally.

• (c) God only knows.

That between 1 million and 1.5 million Armenians were brutally and systematically massacred starting in 1915 in a deliberate genocidal campaign is a matter of simple historical record. If you really want to deepen and broaden awareness of that historical record, you should support the establishment of the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial in Washington. But to pass a declarative resolution in the House of Representatives in the middle of a war in which we are inordinately dependent on Turkey would be the height of irresponsibility.

The atrocities happened 90 years ago. Not a single living Turk under the age of 102 is in any way culpable. Even Mesrob Mutafyan, patriarch of the Armenian community in Turkey, has stated that his community is opposed to the resolution, correctly calling it the result of domestic American politics.

Turkey is already massing troops near its border with Iraq, threatening a campaign against Kurdish rebels that could destabilize the one stable front in Iraq. The same House of Representatives that has been complaining loudly about the lack of armored vehicles for our troops is blithely jeopardizing relations with the country through which 95 percent of the new heavily armored vehicles are now transiting on the way to saving American lives in Iraq.

And for what? To feel morally clean?

How does this work? Pelosi says: "Genocide still exists, and we saw it in Rwanda; we see it now in Darfur." Precisely. And what exactly is she doing about Darfur? Nothing. Pronouncing yourself on a genocide committed 90 years ago by an empire that no longer exists is Pelosi's demonstration of seriousness about existing, ongoing genocide?

Indeed, the Democratic Party she's leading in the House has been trying for months to force a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq that could very well lead to genocidal civil war. This prospect has apparently not deterred her in the least.

"Friends don't let friends commit crimes against humanity," explained Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which approved the Armenian genocide resolution. This must rank among the most stupid statements ever uttered by a member of Congress, admittedly a very high bar.

Does Smith know anything about the history of the Armenian genocide? Of the role played by Henry Morgenthau? As U.S. ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Morgenthau tried desperately to intervene on behalf of the Armenians. It was his consular officials deep within Turkey who (together with missionaries) brought out news of the genocide. And it was Morgenthau who helped tell the world about it in his writings. Near East Relief, the U.S. charity strongly backed by President Woodrow Wilson and the Congress, raised and distributed an astonishing $117 million in food, clothing and other vital assistance that, wrote historian Howard Sachar, "quite literally kept an entire nation alive."

So much for the United States letting friends commit crimes against humanity. And at the time, the Ottomans were not friends. They were an enemy power in World War I, allied with Germany. Now the Turks are indeed friends, giving us indispensable logistical help in our war against today's premier perpetrators of crimes against humanity -- al-Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friends don't gratuitously antagonize friends who are helping to fight the world's foremost war criminals.

So why has Pelosi been so committed to bringing this resolution to the floor? (At least until a revolt within her party and the prospect of defeat caused her to waver.) Because she is deeply unserious about foreign policy. This little stunt gets added to the ledger: first, her visit to Syria, which did nothing but give legitimacy to Bashar al-Assad, who continues to engage in the systematic murder of pro-Western Lebanese members of parliament; then, her letter to Costa Rica's ambassador, just nine days before a national referendum, aiding and abetting opponents of a very important free-trade agreement with the United States.

Is the Armenian resolution her way of unconsciously sabotaging the U.S. war effort, after she had failed to stop it by more direct means? I leave that question to psychiatry. Instead, I fall back on Krauthammer's razor (with apologies to Occam): In explaining any puzzling Washington phenomenon, always choose stupidity over conspiracy, incompetence over cunning. Anything else gives them too much credit.

Crushing Leadership

Lou Dobbs says President Bush has diminished a great nation and may diminish it further.

Dobbs: Beware the lame duck

By Lou Dobbs
CNN

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Diehard GOP faithful, the dwindling number of Bush loyalists and political pundits of every stripe and medium seem obsessed these days with defining or discerning the "legacy of George W. Bush."


Lou Dobbs says President Bush has diminished a great nation and may diminish it further.

Frankly, I spend more time worrying about whether or not the United States can survive the remaining 15 months of his ebbing presidency.

There is little mystery about what future historians will consider to be the legacy of the 43rd president of the United States. Those historians are certain to describe the first presidential administration of the 21st century with terms such as dissipation and perversion.

Bush campaigned for the Republican Party's nomination eight years ago, styling himself as a compassionate conservative. He's amply demonstrated that he is neither.

Although many conservatives refuse to accept the reality, George W. Bush is a one-world neo-liberal who drove budget and trade deficits to record heights while embracing faith-based economic policies that perversely require only blind allegiance to free markets and free trade, without regard for consequence.

This president pursues a war without demanding of his generals either success or victory and accepts the sacrifice of our brave young men and women in uniform while asking nothing of our people or the nation at a time of war.

Sadly, this president has diminished a great nation and may diminish it further.

President Bush has pressed hard for the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the first step toward a North American Union that will threaten our sovereignty. This administration has permitted American businesses to hire illegal aliens, encouraged the invasion of 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens and has given Mexico and corporate America dominion over our borders and our immigration policy.

Were it not for an outraged public, the Bush administration would have been happy to cede control of our ports to a Dubai government-owned company.

The assault on our national sovereignty continues: At a time when public approval of the White House and Congress is near historic lows, the president is urging the Senate to act favorably on our accession to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

One hundred fifty-five nations have ratified the Law of the Sea Treaty, which essentially codifies into law detailed rules about freedom of the seas and the extent of territorial waters. The treaty also establishes an international bureaucracy to regulate deep-sea mining.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently heard arguments on the 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty, which President Ronald Reagan rejected but President Bill Clinton submitted to the Senate in 1994. A vote is likely in the weeks ahead, and this Democratic-controlled Senate is the same institution whose leadership sought passage of the disastrous comprehensive immigration overhaul legislation.

And just as this administration trotted out an Army general to support the Dubai Ports World fiasco and a Marine Corps general to support the administration's immigration proposal, it's now pressured the U.S. Navy to support this treaty.

Bush says the treaty "will secure U.S. sovereign rights over extensive marine areas, including the valuable natural resources they contain." The president could not be more wrong.

This treaty will submit the United States to international tribunals largely adverse to our interests, and the dispute resolution mechanisms are stacked against the United States. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, astutely argues that nearly all the signatories "have voted against the United States over half the time [at the United Nations]."

This administration can do nothing straightforwardly and perverts language at every turn. Take, for example, the words of Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arguing in support of the treaty. "As a non-party," he argues, "We are not currently in a position to maximize U.S. sovereign rights over the shelf in the Arctic or elsewhere."

Negroponte's tortured reasoning is entirely consistent with this administration's intellectual performance over almost two terms in office, but it serves neither the truth nor the national interest.

The Law of the Sea Treaty would undermine our national sovereignty and act as a back door for global environmental activists to direct U.S. policy.

It would hold the United States to yet another unaccountable international bureaucracy and constrain our national prerogatives. Aside from that, the treaty is wholly unnecessary. The U.S. Navy already enjoys international navigation rights by customary practice.

Our elected officials in both political parties and the national media should worry less about the legacy of this lame-duck president and far more about the future of a great nation and people debilitated by his ruinous leadership.

Has Speaker Pelosi broken the Logan Act?

A sometimes commenter and full time critic of The Elephant Bar, habu, posted a comment that stated,

Habu1 said...
Will someone tell me how you can conduct an entire thread on whether Nancy Pelosi stepped over the line in leading a trip to Syria and NO ONE mentions the Logan Act?"

Habu received a response:

allen said...
Mrs. Pelosi does not fall under the Logan Act because she is NOT a regular citizen; rather, she is the Speaker of the House, third in line in ascendancy. If we wish to exclude Mrs. Pelosi, we must first change the Constitution - .a small detail, to be sure, but one that sticks in the craw. Of course, we could make things up as is the way of DR, but that would not be Constitutional.

Sat Apr 07, 02:55:00 AM EDT

There is a difference between custom and law. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton have broken a custom of past presidents not criticizing the sitting president. Bush Senior and Richard Nixon adhered to the tradition. Distasteful activity is not criminal activity. Clinton and Carter are not going to be charged with the Logan Act because they are not ordinary citizens.

Jesse Jackson has clearly broken the Logan Act. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan stated that Jackson had probably broken the act. Jackson traveled to Cuba and Nicaragua that year and had returned with several Cuban political prisoners. Jackson was never charged.

It has become a custom for presidential candidates to establish their bona fides by visiting foreign leaders. They make statements about foreign policy and criticize the current leadership. John Kerry did it and was never charged.

Pelosi is the Speaker of the House. She pays the bills for the US. She has every right to go where she wants when she wants. She received that right when she was elected by a majority of voters.

Elections have consequences. Poor leadership by George Bush got the Republicans a good shellacking and Nancy Pelosi is the consequence.
That is the law.

There are a lot of laws I do not like. There are many people in government of whom I do not approve. It seems that there are many people that agree with me, and increasingly more that do not.

Many of those on both sides do not bother to vote. Under our system that is the only legal recourse we have. We all have to live under laws we would never have created or approved. Politicians who write laws and then selectively enforce them rule us. Some of us ordinary citizens, when selected and targeted by the extraordinary citizens, that hold government power, can be sent to prison and have our property taken for almost anything our oppressors care to charge us with. Scooter Libby is a current example, and he is far from being an ordinary citizen.

Nancy Pelosi is a very powerful elected US Governmental official and a leader of the most powerful political party in the United States. She is not covered under the Logan Act.

Where do you stand on Speaker Pelosi?

Does Pelosi step over the line or fill a vacuum?

Legislator or Diplomat - Pelosi Steps Over Line
agoravox

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has taken her newfound power and misinterpreted it. She recently told the President of the United States to “calm down” and has crossed over into State Department territory.

Ms. Pelosi has gone to Syria to visit puppet, Syrian President Basher Assad, supporter of terror. Assad, like his protege, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would like to see Israel blown off the face of the earth, and sends terrorists into Iraq to kill U.S. and coalition forces.
The President and State Department had asked Pelosi not to visit Syria but she insists she is using the Iraq Study Group report as her guide, in addition to her power hungry ego, the driving force in her visit.

Pelosi and her Liberal ilk want to undermine the Presidency and bring down the Bush administration at all costs. Pelosi and company has no time for the U.S. troops as they have gone on spring recess without passing a legitimate funding bill.

Pelosi and company has, however, attempted to control the U.S. military, the President, and U.S. commanders in Iraq by setting deadlines to leave Iraq and the fight against al-Qaeda.

Visiting Syria is further evidence that Nancy Pelosi and the Left-Wing Nut House only care about taking over the White House in 2008 and increasing their Congressional power as well. No President, no troops, no military commanders will get in their way.

It’s power first and somewhere down the line America is included in the plan after Syria, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaeda.

Nancy Pelosi tells the President of the United States to "calm down" in front of the media and then proceeds to play diplomat against the wishes of the professionals at the State Department.

Pelosi’s actions are much like a coups d’état and Madame Speaker is running the Junta.

Congressman Tom Lantos, who is a member of the delegation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading to Syria, put the mission clearly when he said:

"We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy."
Pelosi and the Democrats, including Republicans like Rep. Hobson of Ohio, who visit Syria, especially against the wishes of the White House, are sending a message to terror groups that there is disunity in the U.S. government and it’s ok to continue your reign of terror and meddling in Iraq.

Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Democrats are stepping in to carry out their own foreign policy, by their own admission and their own military policy on troop deployment, by their own legislation — all the while denying that they are intruding on the President’s authority.

Instead of speaking to the world with one voice, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats, are speaking alone, separating America into divisions, while taking over government responsibility from diplomats and the State Department.

The Iraq Study Group recommended face-to-face meeting with Iran also, which were recommendations and further meddling with real U.S. foreign policy. Does Ms. Pelosi plan a trip to visit Ahmadinejad in Iran? The only stopping at present is the hostage situation with 15 British military personnel.

Pelosi and the Democrats say they speak for America, or America has spoken in the narrow election victory in 2006. The Liberals are mistaken if they really believe they speak for America while they trample our present foreign policy.

Pelosi and the Democrats are showing the world they have no respect for the authority of the Office of the United States President or the United States Department of State.

Power and self-made authority has blinded Pelosi to matters of importance to America and freedom loving countries worldwide. Pelosi turning her "ego trip" into a diplomatic debacle that may result in extraordinary negative consequences in the war on terror and the lives of our troops on the ground in the Middle East.

Nancy Pelosi’s actions border on "high crimes and misdemeanor’s" and as Speaker of the House, she is now accountable to the American people, including the many who do not support her or her actions.

Legislators should do their jobs and stay out of diplomatic circles. The American public votes the President of the United States into office nationally while Senator’s and Representatives are elected in State elections.

The Speaker of the House and other’s in Congress cannot negotiate on behalf of the United States; the Presidential administration determines American policy. Pelosi has clearly stepped over the line in asserting power she feels as an entitlement of her office. The Speaker couldn’t be more wrong.

Speaker 'Paulosi' on the road to Damascus.

George Bush will have his hands full with Speaker Pelosi for the rest of his term. If this trip goes well for her, the Democrats are going to seize the agenda on foreign policy. Nature abhors a vacuum.

"The road to solving Lebanon's problems passes through Damascus" Pelosi vows US 'will not bargain over Lebanon'

Daily Star staff
Wednesday, April 04, 2007

BEIRUT: US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Lebanese leaders on Monday that her country "will not bargain over Lebanon," adding that the US was "totally aware" of the situation in Lebanon. Local daily An-Nahar quoted Pelosi on Monday as saying that her visit to Damascus the next day "ought not to be considered as meaning a change in US policy concerning Lebanon."

American Democrats and the Republicans hold "the same stands concerning Lebanon, especially with regard to aids allotted to the Lebanese Army that were ratified by the US Congress," she said.

Sources close to Pelosi told An-Nahar that the speaker will inform Syria that Democrats support the establishment of an international court to try suspects in the February 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in addition the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the summer 2006 war with Israel.

Pelosi said that she will tell Syria that America is "keen on preserving" Lebanese unity, but opposed to "any kind of foreign interference in Lebanese domestic issues."

told reporters after meeting with parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri on Monday.

Her visit to Syria does not fall within the framework of "illusions," but rather of "great hope," she said on Monday.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb


An-Nahar said that the minutes of Pelosi's meetings in Lebanon on Monday revealed that none of the figures with which the American official met expressed opposition to "the full implementation of Resolution 1701."

"However, Pelosi was able to sense the huge discrepancy in opinions concerning the make-up of the tribunal, even if both loyalist and opposition groups encouraged its [tribunal] formation," the sources said.

The sources added that Pelosi noticed that while Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was "excited" about re-launching one-on-one talks with Hariri, Hariri "showed reluctance" regarding a resumption of negotiations for a solution to the crisis because of the continued refusal by Berri to convene a parliamentary session.

An-Nahar noted that US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman did not attend any of Pelosi's meetings on Monday, adding that he had left Lebanon on Saturday "for unknown reasons."

The US Embassy "did not divulge any information about Pelosi's visit to Lebanon, where it previously used to provide biographies and press releases following the visit of any US officials to Beirut," the paper said. - The Daily Star

Pelosi visiting Syria is dead wrong. The dead will be US troops.

There is no direct evidence, but since the House and Senate set up deadlines on a US exit from Iraq, reported violence seems to have accelerated. Over 400 Iraqi people have been killed over the past four days, AFP reported Iraqi officials and medics as saying.

125 people were killed in a series of coordinated marketplace blasts in Baghdad and town of Khalis on Thursday.

In a separate incident at least 82 men, women and children were slain in blasts as two suicide bomber tore through a market place in the Al-Shaab, in Baghdad on Thursday.

The blasts came just days after former US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told a farewell news conference that violence had fallen by 25 percent in and around Baghdad since 80,000 Iraqi and US troops deployed under the new security plan.

Another 43 were killed were killed in a series of vehicle bombs, roadside bomb and mortar attacks in the town of Khalis in Diyala province on Thursday.

On Tuesday, doctors and army officers said 160 Iraqis were slaughtered in the northern town of Tal Afar, 85 in a suicide bombing targeting a crowd waiting for food rations and another 75 men shot dead.

The announced visit to Syria by Nancy Pelosi, over White House objections is foolish and irresponsible and will only encourage increased violence and sectarian turf wars. Supporting the troops will get a lot more killed.
____________________________________________________________
White House Criticizes US House Speaker's Plan to Visit Syria
By David Gollust VOA
State Department
30 March 2007

The Bush administration Friday criticized plans by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Syria. Pelosi and a delegation of other House Democrats are expected to go to Damascus early next week as part of a broader Middle East trip. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

Officials here say Speaker Pelosi and her delegation are getting all the customary logistical support from the State Department, including a policy briefing on Syria.

But in an unusual move, the Bush administration has publicly criticized the speaker's travel plans, saying the visit will undermine U.S.-led efforts to isolate the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Congressional aides say Pelosi and her colleagues began the mission Friday in Jerusalem where they were to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and would go on to Syria, then Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Pelosi, who as House speaker is just behind Vice President Dick Cheney in the presidential line-of succession, would be the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Syria in several years.

At the White House, Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino said the visit was a very bad idea that can only help the Syrian government, which the United States accuses of meddling in Lebanon, supporting Palestinian extremists, and allowing foreign fighters to cross its borders into Iraq.

At a news briefing here, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the Assad government showcases visits of this kind to try to conceal its own political isolation:

"We don't think it would be appropriate for high-level visitors, even those from the Congress to pay a visit to Syria right now," he said. "The typical Syrian MO [mode of operation] on this is to use these visits to tell the rest of the world, to say: look, there's nothing wrong. We're having all these visitors coming to Damascus. There's no problem with our behavior. And they point to the visits as proof that there is no problem with their behavior and they are not, in fact, isolated."

McCormack said the administration's advice on visiting Syria would be the same to both Democrats and Republicans, while stressing that travel decisions are ultimately made by the legislators themselves.

Though it maintains diplomatic relations with Syria, the United States withdrew its ambassador from Damascus in 2005 after Syrian officials were implicated in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration Ellen Sauerbrey was in Damascus earlier this month in the highest-level State Department visit there in two years.

But McCormack said her talks were limited to her counterparts in the Syrian government and strictly confined to the issue of Iraqi refugees.

The Pelosi delegation also includes, among others, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Lantos and first-term Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress.

A group of Senators from both parties visited Damascus in December after the bipartisan Iraq Study Group recommended greater U.S. dialogue with Syria and Iran in efforts to end Iraqi violence.