When Nancy Pelosi made a visit to Syria in 2007, conservatives were ready to prosecute her for violating the Logan Act, which prohibits any US citizen from:
directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
Now it turns out that Dick Cheney just had a regal quasi-state visit with the King of Saudi Arabia, King Abullah ("Foreign Policy: Mr. Cheney goes to Riyadh -- mysteriously.")
There are differences between Pelosi and the present case. Whereas Pelosi maintained she said nothing on her trip that differed from the positions of President Bush, Cheney almost never says anything on foreign policy which doesn't differ from the position of President Obama. Including the implication that the president could qualify as a traitor by placing America in "danger" if he does not follow Cheney's war-mongering policies, like escalation in Afghanistan. Obama has every right to ask Cheney what he talked about with King Abdullah, arguably the US's most important ally in the region, down to a word-by-word report.
Another difference is that Pelosi had the mitigating factor of being the in-office Speaker of the House, with some responsibility for foreign policy. Cheney is a renegade ex-VP whose views are widely-known to run counter to the views of the president, thereby setting up the kind of confusion the Logan Act was meant to prevent, confusion over who exactly is speaking for the United States in its conduct of a coherent foreign policy.
The Republican chorus against Pelosi, for essentially nothing, was a typical vicious no-holds barred attack, included Robert F. Turner's opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal:
Meanwhile, that headscarf that Pelosi put on to show her second-class status as a woman and as a dhimmi (second-class citizen in a militant Islamic country) is very appropriate, and we think she should continue to wear it in Congress. It shows her acceptance of the demeaning status of a kafir female (worth one-quarter of a Muslim male under Saudi Arabian blood money compensation tables). The Speaker of the House has not only allegedly violated the Logan Act by conducting diplomacy with a hostile foreign power, she has engaged in behavior far more suitable for female Islamic property or for a slave than for a free American.
It does not matter whether Saudi Arabia is considered a "hostile" foreign power or not, and the Logan Act makes no distinction. The country is an important player in the delicate balancing act of Middle East diplomacy. Now Dick Cheney may have done something really wrong, and could pay, were a single congressman to grow a pair and say what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
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