The Democratic speaker from San Francisco and Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, were asked at a press conference in San Francisco Tuesday whether on the heels of their recent trip to the Middle East they would be interested in extending their diplomacy in the troubled region with a visit to Iran.

"Speaking just for myself, I would be ready to get on a plane tomorrow morning, because however objectionable, unfair and inaccurate many of (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's) statements are, it is important that we have a dialogue with him,'' Lantos said. "Speaking for myself, I'm ready to go -- and knowing the speaker, I think that she might be.''

Pelosi did not dispute that statement, and noted that Lantos -- a Hungarian-born survivor of the Holocaust -- brought "great experience, knowledge and judgment" to the recent bipartisan congressional delegation trip to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia in addition to Syria.

"I find the president of Iran's remarks to be so repulsive that they are outside the circle of civilized human behavior,'' Pelosi said, referring to Ahmadinejad's past comments that Israel should be wiped off the face of the map and his questioning of the existence of the Holocaust.

"But a person of Mr. Lantos' stature and personal experience is saying that - even as a Holocaust survivor and even recognizing the outrageous statements of the president of Iran - it's important to have dialogue. I think that speaks volumes.''

Yes, it does.

Dan Riehl asks, Are they nuts??? No, they want to have "dialogue" with a sleazy totalitarian genocidal maniac even though they acknowledge his end of the "dialogue" will be "objectionable, unfair and inaccurate" and "so repulsive that they are outside the circle of civilized human behavior." This means that the two halves of their brains are not speaking to each other, specifically that they have prehistoric - no, make that ahistoric - bicameral minds which facilitate magical thinking, such as believing that sprinkling "dialogue powder" on intractable nasty dictators will miraculously produce peaceful behavior. And rainbows and unicorns.

But wait, there's more.

Pelosi said that throughout the congressional delegation's recent Middle East trip, "every place we went we had a constant message: the safety and security of Israel, fighting terrorism.''

"There was, of course, a shadow over all of it, Iran: Iran's support of terrorist groups is something that must be stopped,'' she said. "Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon is something that must not happen and we must stop them with the strongest of diplomatic measures.''

What diplomatic measures Nancy thinks she can pull out of her magic hat that have not been tried for the past, oh, 27 years, we can only guess. Maybe she will tell Achmadinejad that Olmert told her that Israel is ready to sit down with Iran for peace talks. Hey, that worked so well last week.

This bit falls into the "There. Are. No. Words." category:

Lantos noted that "with the speaker's support,'' he has co-sponsored legislation in the House that calls for making available to all countries -- including Iran -- nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes under international oversight by establishing a "nuclear fuel bank."

"So if the Iranian president says that he is developing (nuclear material) for peaceful purposes, we are assisting him in that process,'' said Lantos, who anticipated the legislation could pass as early as May.

No it won't. Congress isn't that crazy.

Desperate for silver linings, I cling to the faint hope that Lantos' melange of hubris, historical amnesia, partisanship, and magical thinking will drive more American Jews into the Republican camp, if only for one election cycle.

Flopping Aces has a wonderful animated gif of Pelosi dancing with terrorists.

Allahpundit says it better than I:

I’m exhausted by these identity politics games where one’s actions are valid or invalid depending upon how many members of an aggrieved group are on one’s side. Conservatives do it too; that’s what the Fox/CBC/Obama pas de trois over the Democratic primary debate was about.

In this case Pelosi’s willing to violate constitutional law and American political custom by meeting with terrorists, but she’s not willing to meet with a bottom-feeding, cretinous Holocaust denier for fear of offending Jews. How does she negotiate the latter to facilitate the former? Simple: she takes Lantos with her. As a victim he’s beyond criticism, and thus so is she by association. That, of course, makes it a game of moral-authority poker where, in order to challenge her, we have to bet some “chips” of our own. So, fine — I’ll see her Tom Lantos and raise her Elie Wiesel. It’s disgusting, but it’s a game they love to play . . . .

As long as we're playing identity politics around here, let me add my moral authority chips to the pile. My parents were both refugees from Hitler, my mom from Vienna and my dad from Berlin. What Allah doesn't emphasize is that Lantos is a willing accomplice, who ought to know better. Lantos knows what those were called, in the camps. That's all I'm going to say.