The Rainbow Tour of Nancy Pelosi

Don't Cry for Her, Argentina -- Picture courtesy Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi truly stirred the pot last week, with her "Rainbow Tour" to the Middle East. In a superficial way, the trip harks back a bit to Evita Peron. Argentina's Evita Peron took a Rainbow Tour of Europe in 1947, as a diplomatic surrogate of her husband, President Juan Peron. She charmed "the pants" off of Europe with her snazzy outfits and hairdos. There was so much emphasis placed on Peron's style, all substance was ignored. Evita changed to subdued styles when she returned to Buenos Aires -- she truly wanted to be taken seriously as a statesman.

Now Pelosi is not a style maven, though she makes a good appearance. Have to say she has a bit more gravitas than Evita. Last week, she swept thru the Middle East meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and even meeting with Israel’s Knesset. In perhaps her most Evita-like moment, the all-male Syrian Advisory Council allowed her to sit in the leader's chair, where she commented that it had a nice view that should be enjoyed by more women. With Syria, she engaged in fact-finding about connections to terrorism. In Israel and Saudi Arabia, she discussed peace initiatives. Her good deed was punished vociferously by American conservatives everywhere.

Is Pelosi's Tour on the Highway to Hell or the Road to Damascus? The Bush team is mortified that anyone would talk to someone who is thought to be funding Hezbollah or Hamas. I think that the jury is still out on this bit of Pelosifying diplomacy. Furthermore, the Bush Administration has lost all credibility and therefore its right to register an opinion. If George W. Bush were actually trying to unhinge the world, he could've done no better than what he's done so far. Syrians have behaved badly, and yet diplomacy is probably the only way we'll find what the Hell they want and what might appease the situation.

In WWII we had such a deficiency in Japanese speakers, we weren't sure if a 1945 message from Japan's Emperor was surrender or a taunt. America in general and the Bush administration in particular are loath to talk to enemies or understand foreign languages. Maybe we need to open up some communication channels -- as a matter of fact, what we don't know will hurt us. I don't know that Pelosi's Tour will clear up very much, but I don't think it will damage much either. I think to a lot of Middle Easterners, a ray of sun has just broken through the clouds.

© 2007 blogSpotter