Retraction: Pelosi In Syria

Okay, it's a little late - it's ages ago in Internet time - and I could probably let the whole thing slide, but I hereby make a full retraction of the faint praise I offered for Nacy Pelosi's trip to Syria.

There's really no other way to spin it. It was bad voodoo in terms of foreign policy. Yes, in my estimation the Bush administration has been a disappointment, and no, I don't think diplomacy is "a reward" (it can be everything short of war) - but by the time the Washington Post and the Lebanese are calling it a blunder-headed move ... well, there's no other way to spin it.

As a matter of best-practices government, independent of the administration in power, the country needs to act in a consistent manner when it comes to affairs of state, and for better or worse the tone and tenor of official policy should be set by the executive branch.

Pelosi's visit succeeded in making everybody look like idiots - Pelosi, Bush, and their respective political parties, and it managed to tick off both Israel and Lebanon. That takes an impressive amount of incompetence.

Update: Romney weighs in on the visit.