What a sobering moment for House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi in responding to President Bush’s press conference today discussing the Iraq preliminary report. The final report on the surge is set for September. Today on the floor of the House of Representatives, in attempting to justify why the U.S. should abandon the Iraqis and remove our troops, Nancy Pelosi chastises the fledgling democratic Iraqi government by stating that not enough political benchmarks have been met. She said the Iraqi legislature has been sitting on legislation for months and has not been able to show any progress passing any of it. The transcript does not capture her reaction to what she said when she said it. It was one of those “priceless” moments. A video will also show that she strayed slightly from the text transcript posted on her website. As of this writing I haven’t found a video of the proceeding.
According to her website, the “transcript” she posted says “Legislation to make the Iraqi political process more inclusive is stalled in the Iraqi legislature.” OK, is this the pot calling the kettle black or what? Bush addressed this issue today as well. Simply, the military and security benchmarks will come, and have to come, before the political benchmarks can be made.
Besides, the Iraqi legislators are dodging mortars, suicide bombers, and missiles Nancy. What’s your excuse?
It is unfortunate that the Speaker cannot be on the same side as our government and the Iraqi people. This is coming from the same people who criticized the administration for not planning for the aftermath of the fall of Saddam. What is their plan for Iraq if we were to leave before the job is complete? Have they taken that into account? Which BTW the President fully explained at his press conference today. Nancy does not care. She’s got an agenda for her party. And the party comes before the country.
UPDATE 7/19/07: the video