Did I miss something about the recent November 2006 mid-term elections when the Democrats took control of Congress?

I have been under the impression that Nancy Pelosi simply became Speaker (Ugh) in January – not president of the United States or even

in a new self-appointed title of prime minister.

Speaking of prime ministers, you readers who grew up, served or are World War II history buffs, will surely remember British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who served as Britain’s leader during the late 1930s – the days leading up to the beginning of World War II. Chamberlain, in his infamous meeting with Hitler (Munich 1938), thought he could stave off the war by appeasing Hitler.

Anyway, for those of you who still remember, Hitler – like all dictators are wont to do – lied to Chamberlain about his intentions to invade Eastern Europe.

Chamberlain returned home with a worthless peace agreement, which Winston Churchhill saw through immediately, and soon after, Nazi Germany took control of all of Czechoslovakia, invaded and conquered Poland, and World War II was underway.

The Chamberlain/Hitler meeting has been characterized as the “quintessential example of appeasement.” Others refer to the meeting as the “Munich Betrayal,” and Nancy Pelosi’s suggestion before her Syria trip was “the road to Damascus is a road to peace” is the most recent blatant example of how some politicians always get taken in by dictators when exercising the “be nice, appeasement approach.”

It never works!

Pelosi and her entourage knew full well that they were dealing with a country and its president (Assad) which is a full-blown sponsor of two major terrorist organizations, Hezbollah and Hamas. These two groups, who along with the leaders of Syria and Iran, embrace the desire for the destruction of Israel, along with doing as much harm as they can to our country.

The very idea that Pelosi would take such a brazenly arrogant approach, i.e., overrreaching her authority, demonstrates the gross lack of leadership we have in the House of Representatives, under the Democrat hard-left rule. The same can be said of Senate majority leader Harry Reid. Without a doubt, the leaders in both congressional bodies have chosen to put their own personal agendas ahead of our national security.

In my reading about Nancy’s ill-timed sojourn, one journalist described her meeting with Assad as “undermining the United States through her unconstitutional usurpation and contradiction of executive authority.”

This is a fancy way of saying that the Speaker’s motive was to undermine our foreign policy and to embarrass President Bush. Rather than being embarrassed, Bush made it clear that he is thoroughly upset and disgusted with Pelosi’s attempt to act like she is our Secretary of State as well as “Prime Minister.”

Perhaps the most outrageous outcome re: the Pelosi/Assad meeting was Nancy’s suggestion that she carried an overture of peace talks from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Assad.

Of course, Olmert’s statement was the same age-old Israeli position – that talks with Syria will begin when Syria totally withdraws support for Hezbollah and Hamas, the terrorist groups that want to make Israel disappear.

The chances of that happening are “slim and none.”

Accompanying Pelosi on her misguided trip was congressman Tom Lantos, the new House Foreign Affairs Chairman, a Hungarian Jew, who survived imprisonment in a Nazi slave camp. Lantos trying to appease Syria’s Assad, who would like to promote a second Holocaust, makes for the strangest “bedfellows.”

Liberal politicians and media-types have the same chance of changing the minds/policies of terrorists/dictators – as the spraying of perfume on a skunk will make him/her smell good.

Remember 9/11 and God Bless America!

Byrd Looper is a regular columnist for The Times-Journal.