Washington – David Hobson, a nine-term House member from Ohio, is becoming the token Republican.
In January, he was the lone Republican on a congressional trip to Iraq led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. This month, Hobson was again the only member of the GOP on a trip to the Middle East organized by Pelosi.
That was the same trip, which included a stop in Syria, that drew criticism from Capitol Hill Republicans and the White House. They accused Pelosi of undermining the Bush administration’s foreign policy.
Their rancor irritated Hobson, a solid Republican who is well regarded within his party.
“Before we left, we met with the State Department people, and nobody told us not to go,” Hobson said, adding that none of his Republican colleagues broached the subject either. “Nobody ever called me to say, ‘Why are you going to Syria with those people?”‘
Why, indeed. Especially when a group of Republican lawmakers led by Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia traveled to Syria days before Pelosi’s group.
“I went to dinner with who asked me,” said Hobson, the only Republican Pelosi invited to join the group. “Frank Wolf didn’t ask me to go to Syria.”
It is important for lawmakers from both parties to travel together to lend credibility to the trip and present a cohesive message to foreign governments, Hobson said.
“When we’re outside the country, we should be putting forth a bipartisan foreign policy – and we did,” he said. “There could be misconceptions in the region that because we are divided over the (Iraq war) supplemental, there are also divisions on the war on terror. ”
Pelosi invited Hobson because the two have a good rapport, according to her spokesman, Brendan Daly.
“He’s a good guy; she likes him,” Daly said. “She thinks he’s a very smart and able member.”
Hobson has been to Iraq five times.
