The bumpkins on Capitol Hill

There's a reason the Founders invested the Executive Branch with the power to conduct the nation's diplomacy and foreign policy: Most presidents can see past their noses. Take the present brouhaha over Obama's stance on Israel. The president is being criticized for a diplomatic position he doesn't hold. Yes, you read that right. Congress is up in arms about Obama's suggestion that Israel should “return” to its 1967 borders. Except he suggested nothing of the sort. As the Washington Post correctly noted, "he supports a peace framework based on the pre-1967 lines with land swaps, which is not the same thing at all." It's up to Israel and Palestine themselves to negotiate the actual border details. But as it has relentlessly reminded us in recent days, the bumpkins in Congress doesn't do nuance. Hence the misguided brouhaha. And yet, these are the same congressional bumpkins divining "solutions" for our complex economic woes. God help us.