House Speaker, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, (it still gives me feminist chills to list all her titles) managed to get accused of being too uppity and too subservient simultaneously. This is not as difficult as it might appear. The right-wing press thinks the Democratic Party is a tool of Satan and Speaker Pelosi is not only guilty of Democracy, but the crime of being elected while female.

Speaker Pelosi had the nerve to go to Syria.

It’s okay for Republicans like Sen. John McCain to tie up the resources of our troops to guard him while he parades around Bagdhad in a bullet-proof vest; but it’s not okay for Speaker Pelosi to act like a real politician who represents a nation that is sick of this open-ended war.

She went to Syria, and she wore a headscarf when she visited a mosque! Here in Rhode Island, we know about covering your head. I know I’m not the only girl who stood in line grimacing while Sister Mary Edward bobby-pinned a tissue to her hair. It was a mortal sin to walk into church without a hat. I’m glad Speaker Pelosi respected the local custom. It’s called ‘diplomacy’, alternately, ‘good manners’. She probably wouldn’t walk into the Vatican wearing shorts, either.

And as far as the headscarf, it seems to be a matter of who you are and which country the US is buying the most oil from. In 2002 our female soldiers, who risk their lives for our country every day, objected to a command to wear a head to toe black cloak, the abaya, and to not be seen driving while off base in Saudi Arabia. It was not the Saudi’s who were making them do this, it was our own military, and that must have felt like a betrayal. I think we can trust our servicewomen to know how to behave in foreign countries, given the right information, and I think the House Speaker is showing the best of America.