Posted by
Andrews on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 1:43:43 PM
The recent articles about Carter's trip to visit Hamas has caused me to ask an obvious question, why is Nancy Pelosi not in jail? I know there is congressional immunity to many forms of prosecution, but I think an explicit violation of the Logan act should be enough to prosecute her, or at least begin impeachment proceedings, after which she can be indicted.
Now, let us be clear, Nancy's trip to Syria was not the normal "fact-finding" junket. The few of those which aren't just stealth vacations still do not involve making promises to foreign leaders, nor delivering specious "secret messages" from Israel. Nor was her trip one of those "cultural understanding" exercises, like those carried out by the Sandalistas swarming to Nicaragua in the 1980's, the hippies sneaking into Cuba in the 1960's, or the Quakers and others promoting the glories of Stalinist Russia in the 1930's.
Nancy was clearly engaged in unsanctioned diplomacy on her trip to Syria, every bit as much as John Kerry was when he met with the North Vietnamese in the 1970's, or as Carter will be when he meets with Hamas. All of them are clear violations of the Logan act, and prosecuting any one of them should be a slam dunk for any federal prosecutor.
So, why is nothing happening? Is the US so unconcerned with the enforcement of laws that we will just allow anyone with enough name recognition to carry out their own diplomatic missions?