Politics on the Hudson

Rep. Eliot Engel has consistently been among the strongest critics in Congress of Syria. So it’s not surprising that he would take a dim view of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria and her meeting with President Bashar Assad.

“I personally would not go to Syria,” said Engel, the Bronx Democrat whose district stretches into Westchester and Rockland counties. “We have a policy and I think it’s the correct policy of not speaking to terrorist organizations.”

Engel also said: “There is not much to be accomplished by (Pelosi’s trip). It gives Assad a photo op and a chance to appear moderate when he is anything but and I just think that those things are not the right thing to do.”

Engel authored the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, which called for sanctions against Syria for supporting of terrorism. He said Pelosi’s trip was “not the smartest thing to do,” but he stopped short of calling it a mistake and he accused the Bush administration of playing politics with its criticism.

“They are always trying to say that Democrats are not good on national defense, fighting terrorism and things like that,” Engel said. And I think his criticism plays right into that hand.”

Engel said it was “within Nancy Pelosi’s prerogative to go. She is the speaker. We are a co-equal branch of government. It is not just the president who dictates policy.”