Taking a Hit

(Fox News) - USA Today is criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her meeting this week with Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying Pelosi "stepped out of bounds on an ill-conceived trip to Syria." It said that she "crossed a line" and "violated a long-held understanding that the United States should speak with one official voice abroad."

But the paper also carried a response from House Foreign Affairs committee Chairman Tom Lantos — who was on the trip with Pelosi. He writes that "USA today's views distort both the nature of Speaker Pelosi's trip and the constitutional role of Congress in foreign policy," and adds Pelosi, "acted well within the bounds of current U.S.foreign policy."

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal also criticized the trip, and pointed to a different remark from Lantos who said during the trip: " We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy. I view my job as beginning with restoring overseas credibility and respect for the United States."