Knee Jerk Jerk

by digby

I am getting really, really tired of this:

BARNICLE: And now you have Speaker Pelosi in Syria. You know, I think if she were Speaker Nancy Pelosi from Birmingham, Alabama, or Pensacola, Florida, or Chicago, Illinois, even, it might play a little better politically in Washington than it has been. But she‘s from San Francisco.

This is Mike “I promise not to plagiarize anymore” Barnicle from Taxachusetts saying this. He goes on to say that it doesn’t matter what Nancy does, but he apparently felt he had to bond with the macho gasbags on Scarborough by gratuitously taking a shot at San Francisco. I wish these people would just stop it. It’s chauvanistic, outdated and stupid.

(I know that I will get a flurry of well meaning readers telling me how it’s ridiculous to complain because liberals are always trashing the south, and I’m sure it must be true, but I don’t see it on television, nor do I ever hear analysts casually saying that an issue is tainted by a southerner’s affiliation with it. Bashing liberal cities as being outside the mainstream is considered a free shot, however, and it’s time to put a stop to it.)

But it does explain one thing — why nobody said a damned word when Denny Hastert was traipsing all over South America telling leaders that they should ignore the Clinton White House and negotiate directly with the Republican congress:

In 1997, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) led a delegation to Colombia at a time when U.S. officials were trying to attach human rights conditions to U.S. security assistance programs. Hastert specifically encouraged Colombian military officials to “bypass” President Clinton and “communicate directly with Congress.”

…a congressional delegation led by Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) which met with Colombian military officials, promising to “remove conditions on assistance” and complaining about “leftist-dominated” U.S. congresses of years past that “used human rights as an excuse to aid the left in other countries.” Hastert said he would to correct this situation and expedite aid to countries allied in the war on drugs and also encouraged Colombian military officials to “bypass the U.S. executive branch and communicate directly with Congress.”

Subsequently, U.S. Ambassador to Colombia Myles Frechette sent a cable complaining that Hastert’s actions had undermined his leverage with the Colombian military leadership. In other instances, Hastert actually guided congressional staff to unilaterally reach deals with Colombian officials:

House Foreign Affairs Committee staff, at the direction of the Hastert group, would fly to Colombia, meet with the nation’s anti-narcotics police and negotiate the levels and terms of assistance, the scope of the program and the kinds of equipment that would be needed. Rarely were the U.S. diplomatic personnel in our embassy in Bogata consulted about the “U.S.” position in these negotiations, and in a number of instances they were excluded from or not even made aware of the meetings.

Before I heard Barnicle I thought it was hypocritical that Republicans said nothing when Denny Hastert did this. Now I know that it’s because Hastert is from Chicago, Illinois (even!) so it “played better politically” in Washington. This must be why Barnicle gets the big bucks and I don’t.

.