A Man, A Plan, A Committee

Mark Kleiman gets clever:

It seems to me that the White House has blundered, once again, by forgetting, once again, that the Democrats aren't helpless anymore in the face of slander.

When Pelosi gets back from her trip, the House Foreign Affairs Committee ought to hold a hearing at which Pelosi and the Republican visitors to Damascus are invited to speak. If the Republicans show up, they should be asked about the White House role in setting up their trip. If they don't show up, so much the better.

He suggests that members of the Iraq Study Group, which recommended an opening to Syria, also be invited. The plan would work better, however, were House Foreign Affairs not chaired by Tom Lantos who agrees with the administration's inane Syria policy and held hearings in January where he teamed up with his odious GOP countertpart Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to attack the ISG members from the right. I think, in short, you'd have to do it in Senate Foreign Affairs or else some other committee. But it's still a good idea.