Rove is in deep doo doo, the White House is under increasing fire, time for Cheney to crawl out of the bunker and snarl.
Cheney chastises Dem's trip to SyriaVice PresidentDick Cheney delivered a scathing report card Friday on the Democratic-controlled Congress that marks its 100-day milestone this weekend, rebuking its leadership for trying to usurp foreign policy and military operations.
Cheney continued the Bush administration's denouncement of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent trip toSyria, saying "we don't need 535 secretaries of state," referring to the number of lawmakers in Congress.
"No member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, has any business jetting around the world with a diplomatic agenda contrary to that of the president and the secretary of state. It is for the executive branch, not the Congress, to conduct the foreign policy of the United States of America," Cheney said to applause at the Heritage Foundation's annual leadership conference.
The Bush administration has condemned Pelosi's trip to Syria because it considers the country to be a state supporter of terrorism. Pelosi has defended her trip throughout the Middle East and has said she thinks it helped
President Bush. Lawmakers from both parties commonly travel to the Middle East, and some Republicans were in the region when Pelosi was there. Some also have been in Syrian President Bashar Assad's office.
Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-highest ranking Democrat in the Senate, defended Pelosi later Friday during a news conference with reporters. "What the vice president is trying to do is to get out of the spotlight and turn it on Speaker Pelosi's visit to Syria. You can't get away from the obvious, and the obvious is the American people understand the vice president and president are committed to a policy in Iraq that is not working," he said.