Olbermann named Turner "Worst Person" runner-up for op-ed on Pelosi
 
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:23:09 -0400


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<p><b>Olbermann named Turner "Worst Person" runner-up for op-ed on Pelosi and
Logan Act </b></p>
<p><a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200704100013?src=item200704100013">http://mediamatters.org/items/200704100013</a></p>

<p>On the April 9 edition of MSNBC&#39;s <i>Countdown</i>, host Keith Olbermann awarded <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704100013&http://www.law.virginia.edu/lawweb/Faculty.nsf/FHPbI/4459">Robert F.
Turner</a>, a University of Virginia School of Law professor,
"the silver" in his nightly "Worst Person in the World"
segment for asserting, in an April 6 <i>Wall
Street Journal</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704100013&http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110009908">op-ed</a>, that House
"Speaker Nancy Pelosi [D-CA] might have violated a federal criminal law
by going to Syria to meet with [Syrian] President [Bashar Al-] Assad," as
Olbermann put it. Turner claimed Pelosi "may well have" violated
the 200-year-old Logan Act even though, as <i>Media
Matters for America</i> <a href="http://mediamatters.org/items/200704080001?src=item200704100013">noted</a>, a 1975 State
Department <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704100013&http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/61050.pdf#page=12">opinion</a>
applying the act, stated, "Nothing in [the Logan Act, U.S. Code Title
18,] <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704100013&http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000953----000-.html">section
953</a>, however, would appear to restrict members of the Congress from
engaging in discussions with foreign officials in pursuance of their
legislative duties under the Constitution." As <i>Media Matters</i> noted, Pelosi has <a href="http://mediamatters.org/rd?src=item200704100013&http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/07/washington/07diplo.html?ex=1333598400&amp;en=9262dcd3d4903015&amp;ei=5090&amp;partner=rssuserland&amp;emc=rss">said</a>
that her trip was well within those duties.</p>

<p>From the April 9 edition of MSNBC&#39;s <i>Countdown with Keith Olbermann</i>:</p><blockquote>

<p>OLBERMANN: The silver to Robert F.
Turner. He&#39;s a former acting assistant secretary of state for legislative
affairs in the Reagan administration, wrote an op-ed for <i>The Wall Street Journal</i> editorial page,
which has been even more hysterical than usual lately, which suggested Speaker
Nancy Pelosi might have violated a federal criminal law by going to Syria to
meet with President Assad, even though the law he mentioned, the Logan Act, was
specifically ruled by the State Department to have nothing to do with members
of Congress, quote, "engaging in discussions with foreign officials in
pursuance of their legislative duties."</p>

<p>

Former acting assistant secretary of
state for legislative affairs in the Reagan administration -- you mean you were
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