December 15, 2006 -- Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad is playing host this week to a quartet of U.S. senators who all seem to be under the delusion that they've been elected president. How else to explain why the four - led by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) - seem to think they have the authority to sound out the Damascus dictator about his intentions in Iraq and Lebanon?
To be sure, two of the four - Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) - have run for the White House in past years. And two of them, Kerry and fellow Democrat Christopher Dodd (Conn.), are moving to do so in 2008.
Of course, the four insist they're merely on a perfectly legitimate "fact-finding field trip" - never mind the urging from the White House and the State Department that they not meet with Assad.
In sounding out Assad on his intentions in Iraq, Nelson clearly crossed the line from casual listener to active negotiator. And unauthorized negotiations with a foreign power by a private citizen is a felony punishable by up to three years in prison under the Logan Act.
Of course, no one has ever been prosecuted under the law (it dates to 1799). And applying it to members of Congress would probably be a stretch.
But it remains that these visits send an ugly message to Assad - hinting that the new Democratic majority in Congress intends to undermine the administration's conduct of foreign policy.
That would be wrong.
Nelson, for his part, came away from his meeting convinced that "Assad clearly indicated his willingness to cooperate with the Americans and/or the Iraqi army to be part of a solution."
If Assad truly feels that way, there are proper channels he can use to transmit the message - channels that can better assess the seriousness of Assad's intentions than a gaggle of footloose U.S. senators.