Least we forget the neocons transgressions.

Newt Gingrich's 1997 trip to China
The GOP House Speaker went to China, made pronouncements that deviated
from long-standing U.S. policy, and conservatives cheered.
Glenn Greenwald

Apr. 05, 2007 | This is, of course, totally different than the right-
wing outrage scandal de jour:

New York Times, March 31, 1997 -- reporting on a trip to China by
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, one week after Vice President Al Gore's
trip:

Speaking with startling bluntness on an issue so delicate that
diplomats have tiptoed around it for years, Newt Gingrich said today
that he had warned China's top leaders that the United States would
intervene militarily if Taiwan was attacked.

As he left for Tokyo after a three-day trip to China, Mr. Gingrich
said he had made it absolutely clear how the United States would
respond if such a military conflict arose.

Referring to his meetings with China's leaders, Mr. Gingrich said: ''I
said firmly, 'We want you to understand, we will defend Taiwan.
Period.'"

He also said, ''I think that they are more aware now that we would
defend Taiwan if it were militarily attacked.''

Mr. Gingrich, the Speaker of the House, delivered his message, among
the most forceful ever given about Taiwan by a visiting United States
official, to Wang Daohan, China's chief representative in talks with
Taiwan. Mr. Gingrich said he had given the same message to President
Jiang Zemin and Prime Minister Li Peng in Beijing last week.

Chinese leaders offered no public response to Mr. Gingrich today. But
on Friday, Mr. Jiang urged him to treat the Taiwan issue with
care. . . .

Asked about Mr. Gingrich's statements, a Clinton Administration
official in Washington said Mr. Gingrich had received briefings about
American policy toward China, but that Mr. Gingrich ''was speaking for
himself'' in his conversations with Chinese leaders.

The White House issued a statement saying that the policy of the
United States was to ''meet its obligation under the Taiwan Relations
Act, including the maintenance of an adequate self-defense for
Taiwan,'' and that the Administration would maintain its ''one-China
policy, the fundamental bedrock of which is that both parties
peacefully address the Taiwan issue. . . ."

In an interview on Friday, Mr. Gingrich said he had spoken with Mr.
Clinton, and with Mr. Gore on several occasions, to make sure that
their messages to Beijing dovetailed. At the time, he did not mention
his message on Taiwan.

Several days later, Gingrich's remarks in China led to this -- New
York Times, April 4, 1997:
China admonished the United States today to speak with one voice on
foreign policy and accused Newt Gingrich of making ''improper''
statements on Washington's commitment to defend Taiwan from any
military attack by the mainland.

The criticism was made by the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Shen
Guofang, who earlier this week had expressed basic satisfaction with
remarks made by Mr. Gingrich, the Speaker of the House, during a three-
day visit to China.

The visit followed Vice President Al Gore's first trip to Beijing.
Both men spoke on issues of contention between Washington and Beijing,
but Mr. Gingrich's remarks were noteworthy for their directness and
for exceeding the normal State Department formulations on American
commitments to Taiwan.

China's decision to criticize Mr. Gingrich came after he traveled to
Taiwan on Wednesday and met with President Lee Teng-hui.

Back then, the media treated Gingrich like he was the American Prime
Minister, and his right-wing supporters had no problem with the House
Speaker travelling and expressing his own foreign policy views which
deviated from the Clinton administration's. Quite the contrary, many
right-wing leaders -- including Grover Norquist, Ralph Reed, and Vin
Weber -- went on PBS and praised Gingrich's "aggressive role in
China."

They couldn't have been more pleased that Gingrich did what, in their
minds, the Clinton administration was failing to do -- standing up to
the Chinese. Gingrich, as House Speaker, was heroic for going on his
own and doing that. The same behavior from Pelosi (which I'm sure is,
in actuality, completely different for all sorts of unknown and
indiscernible reasons) is now both a grave political mistake and a
reckless breach of protocol.


-- Glenn Greenwald