VOTE ON ARMENIANS SEEN AS SLIP-UP
Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers

The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
October 21, 2007 Sunday

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi found herself in a tight spot
last week over her support for a resolution condemning the Ottoman
Turks’ slaughter of Armenians more than 90 years ago.

Pelosi didn’t take President Bush’s advice that the resolution would
alienate Turkey, a NATO ally that plays a key support role in the
war in Iraq. About 70 percent of the U.S. military air cargo entering
Iraq goes through Turkey, as do an estimated 3,000 trucks each day.

Turkey, one of America’s closest Muslim allies, responded to the
resolution by recalling its ambassador to the United States —
a stern diplomatic signal — and threatening to chill cooperation
with America in the region.

The result: Many House members found Bush’s argument persuasive
and withdrew their support for the resolution. It started with 226
co-sponsors and a solid majority, but so many dropped off that it’s
now unlikely that Pelosi will even bring it up for a vote.

The drama was an unusual public slip-up for Pelosi, and it has raised
questions about her judgment and priorities.

Still, expert Congress watchers say it doesn’t outweigh her overall
success in holding House Democrats together and getting things done.

But the incident sheds light on how House Democrats operate and the
difficulties that lie ahead for them.

Pelosi, D-Calif., said she has long supported a resolution on the
Armenian genocide. The resolution declared that 1.5 million Armenians
were killed in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923. Turkish
leaders acknowledge that many died but deny that there was genocide —
the intentional destruction of an entire people.

Pelosi’s spokesman, Brendan Daly, said she didn’t try to persuade
Democrats to vote for it but left it to each member to decide.

Norman J. Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise
Institute, said he doesn’t fault Pelosi. She didn’t orchestrate
the vote.

Still, Ornstein conceded, in the end, strong intervention averted
"a major foreign policy disaster."

Bill Frenzel of the centrist Brookings Institution, a former
Republican congressman from Minnesota, said that all speakers do
better in their first year, when members of their party give them
special support. Later, committee chairmen flex their muscles and
the rank-and-file feel more independent, especially as elections near.

Things also could change when Democrats take up more controversial
matters, he said.

"So far, the speaker has done well," Frenzel said, "but the job is
getting harder every day."