Secretary of State Specter: Syria's useful idiot

Secretary of State Arlen Specter returned from Damascus empty-handed over the holidays after meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Oh, that's right, Mr. Specter isn't this nation's secretary of State. So why is he trying to act like he is?

The real secretary of State, of course, is Condoleezza Rice. She asked Pennsylvania's senior senator not to go, what with the need for the United States to speak with one foreign-policy voice. Specter apparently told Ms. Rice to take a flying leap at a rolling doughnut, as apparently did three of the very liberal Specter's very liberal buddies -- Sens. Bill Nelson, John Kerry and Chris Dodd -- who shuttled off to Damascus previously.

But as American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin notes, "While he may relish the image of statesman, Specter has little but failure to show for his efforts." That would be after 16 taxpayer-financed trips to Syria since 1984, Mr. Rubin reminds.

Worse, Rubin says Specter has become a propaganda tool of the terrorist-sponsoring Syrians: State-controlled media regularly "twist" Specter's pronouncements "to imply endorsement."

Thus, Arlen Specter has become Syria's useful idiot. As he was, Rubin notes, Saddam Hussein's useful idiot. Saddam took advantage of Specter's resistance to sanctions 17 years ago, allowing the Butcher of Baghdad more time to bolster his forces and invade Kuwait.

And now Sen. Specter says he'd just love to travel to Iran and have a little sit-down with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Good grief.

The real State Department should tolerate this dictators' dupe no longer. Arlen Specter's passport should be revoked before he does any more damage.