Mrs. Pelosi Rules: Torchwoman for All Seasons

All credit to Mrs. Pelosi on this story. Her delegation at Dharamsala weeks ago was the right place at the right time -- I spoke with the FT reporter at Dharamsala Amy Yee at the time, and she told me you have to want to get to Dharmasla, it is a hard slog -- and Mrs. Pelosi has poured on the fire ever since. She is right to support the Dali Lama; she is right to hammer the Beijing cadre; she is right to support the torch protests; she is right to aim the blame at Beijing for politicizng the games; she is right to support the protests at SF planned for now. She is so completely correct, measured, passionate, accurate, it is a puzzle why she does not see Iraq's yearning for liberty as clearly. But that is another tale. On Tibet, on the torch, Mrs. Pelosi is the rock star.

I mention that Thaddeus McCotter of the House Republicans told me last week that protest of the cadre's brutality toward Tibet is not a popular theme in the House, for Dems or GOP. McCotter and Pelosi are in the deep minority on this, and they are correct to fight. Yet another sad mark that the GOP has lost its way. Boehner: no where: and I hear loud silence from the Republican leadership except for McCotter.

Mrs Pelosi, I will praise you for this all the way to the end of your term as Speaker. Your district includes Chinatown in SF. and you are a credit to freedom loving American and Chinese-American nationalists. The power of the torch makes Mrs. Pelosi a freedom-fighter afterall.

Pelosi blames Beijing for making Olympic torch relay political
Tuesday, April 8, 2008


(04-08) 14:16 PDT Washington, CA (AP) --
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is blaming the Chinese government for making the Olympic torch relay a political event, while calling on protesters of the relay in San Francisco to be peaceful and respectful.
Pelosi has a long history of opposing human rights abuses in China and has called on President Bush to consider boycotting the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics following China's crackdown on protesters in Tibet. The Olympic torch is making its one U.S. stop in Pelosi's hometown of San Francisco and protests have started already in advance of Wednesday's relay.
Pelosi says the Chinese government has politicized the Olympics by encouraging international dignitaries to participate in the 20-nation relay and by failing to live up to the commitments it made before being awarded the 2008 Summer Games to improve its human rights record.