Watch Out Assad! John Kerry Is In Town & He's Not Playing! 
Gateway Pundit (H/T: Michelle)

John F. Kerry is not playing wimpy ball!
And, Bashar Assad better not test him because John Kerry means business!
It's peace or it's more talking, Bashar... Nothing less, nothing more.

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U.S. senator John Kerry arrives at Damascus airport on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2006 . U.S. Senators Kerry and Christopher Dodd arrived in Syria on Tuesday to discuss how Damascus could help bring about stability and security to neighboring Iraq. The two Democratic lawmakers declined to speak to reporters after landing at Damascus airport on a U.S. military plane. The diplomatic push from Congress comes on the heels of a recommendation by a bipartisan panel that the U.S. engage Iran and Syria on the war in Iraq.(AP Photo/ Bassem Tellawi).

John Kerry is actually the ideal candidate to talk with the Syrian Assad since he's had practice meeting with America's enemy in the past...

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Senator John Kerry and Senator Tom Harkin, both democrats, during the Cold War met with the communist radical Manuel Ortega in Nicaragua in April 1985. The woman is unidentified.

John Kerry is in the region contradicting himself as he plods along.
JFK had this to say on Friday in a conference call: ...

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Promoted from the comments:

Don Castella at the Illinois Review qouted Cicero.

As Cicero (d. 43 BC) so aptly stated, "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself."

Thanks, Bob.

*** Update and bump. Original timestamp 2006.12.19.11:59

Waffles meets with Assad in Damascus
Allahpundit

You know I’m only posting this as a “second-order distraction” to avoid writing about how horrible conditions are in Iraq, right? I mean, if you’d asked me yesterday whether Kerry chatting with the leader of an insurgent launching pad in contravention of Bush’s foreign policy had news value, I’d have told you yes; but then I read Opinion Journal this morning and realized that’s only because I can’t face the truth. [sic. Link should point here.]

Presumably that goes double for the thousand items Opinion Journal editor James Taranto has written about the haughty, French-looking Massachusetts Democrat who by the way served in Vietnam. Perhaps he’ll also have had an awakening by the time BOTW comes out later today.

So here it is. Don’t think of Iraq!

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He had no comment after the meeting.

If you want something to think about, think about the irony of a news report exposing a secret administration plan to pressure Assad while acknowledging that the success of the plan depends upon its secrecy.

The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals and parties opposed to the Syrian government in an effort to undermine the regime of President Bashar Assad. Parts of the scheme are outlined in a classified, two-page document which says that the U.S. already is “supporting regular meetings of internal and diaspora Syrian activists” in Europe. The document bluntly expresses the hope that “these meetings will facilitate a more coherent strategy and plan of actions for all anti-Assad activists.” ...