"Conducting diplomacy with the regime in Damascus while they kill Lebanese democrats is not only irresponsible, it is shameful."

Gee, if we never talked to anyone who ever had an opponent killed, not only would we never talk to anyone, but NO ONE WOULD EVER TALK TO US!!

No one's hands are clean in the Middle East, from Israeli soldiers who use civilians as "human shields"* to the several different insurgent groups in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan, Iran, to the US soldiers and marines stuck in an unwinnable situation in Iraq. And things will NEVER IMPROVE till we stop shooting our mouths off and start listening. A conversation requires listening as well as talking, you know.

And Nancy Pelosi's bipartisan group MET WITH THE WHITE HOUSE before leaving, so those in the madministration now trying to make political hay are two-faced at the minimum. Typical Republicans, I would say. And this kind of act, this cynical approach to politics, is why we look first to see who is talking before we bother to read the words they've written. Is it wrong? Maybe. But it saves a lot of time, and keeps the blood pressure under control, to look at the name of the writer, and when we see Novak, Krauthammer, Will, or Cheney as the author, a prudent approach is to just ignore it.

Songbob

* see the recent news story about this practice