Today’s news made me think of these pictures. I’m not sure I like the idea (discussed in the comments on that picture) of Pelosi taking the “mean mommy / nice mommy” role. Which is not to say that she did, explicitly; those were just people’s reactions to the photo. (On the other hand, if Bush’s hand on Angela Merkel was inappropriate, is Pelosi’s on Bush any better?) Now the next step has happened and the administration is using juvenilizing language on Pelosi, referring to her trip to Syria as “bad behavior” and “foolish”. Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House, for the love of all that’s sacred. The President of the United States and the Vice President are clearly entitled to disagree with her and she with them, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask for them to treat her as an adult and a serious politician. And vice versa for that matter.
I don’t know whether they’re using language that implies Pelosi is no more than a wayward child because she’s female or because she’s a Democrat. Either way, it’s disrespectful (to Pelosi and to the entire system of government in the US) and irresponsible (giving a country like Syria a possible wedge to divide us further).
In a part of the world on the brink of wide(r)spread war, politics is a serious game, and the leaders of anyone who wants to be a major player in that game need not to be infantilizing each other. Furthermore if any of them going to treat each other as children, perhaps they could take a lesson from actual children, who are a bit wiser: it’s a byword for siblings to squabble among themselves but then present a united front against any outsider. What most of us could manage by the age of 8 ought not to be too difficult for our elected leaders.
Who brought Dick Cheney up? And why did he or she stop halfway?
Mr. Dubya seems to think that the Democrats are sending the “wrong message.” The message he is sending is that the U.S. doesn’t know what it’s doing and is run by a bunch of fools. His performance evokes a lot more disrespect in other countries than someone else’s philandering.