The facts of the Armenia genocide aren’t in dispute. President Reagan acknowledged the genocide in 1981, so it isn’t as though the US officially denies that it happened. The wisdom of passing a resolution about it, 90-some-odd years later, is very debatable. The whole thing reminds me of President Clinton’s 1998 apology tour of Africa, during which he apologized for the evils of the distant past while ignoring more recent evils like the 1994 Rwanda genocide, during which he stood by in full knowledge of what was going on but said and did nothing meaningful to stop it. The grandstanding over the past may have made Clinton personally feel better, but the Rwandan victims were no less dead. The Democrats may be trading a resolution over a past genocide for creating an environment that could lead to another genocide in the immediate future, by making the war in Iraq more difficult to win.

None of the above is likely to gain much traction with the voters, though. But rising oil prices might.

Oil prices hit a record high, spurred by rising tensions between Turkey and Iraq, and deteriorating relations between Turkey and the U.S.

Washington sent envoys on a surprise visit to Ankara this weekend, to urge restraint, as the Turks threaten to attack Kurdish separatists in Northern Iraq.

Democrat preening increases your pain at the pump.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s top general is warning that the resolution will strain US-Turkish military ties, ties which were already strained by Turkey’s failure to allow the 4th ID to enter Iraq via Turkey in 2003, then repaired somewhat by Turkey allowing Incirlik air base to become a major logistics artery to support the war, and kept strong by the Turkish military’s secular nature and the joint fight against terrorism. But Generalissimo Nancy Pelosi is still promising to push ahead with the resolution anyway.

For its part, the White House is not pressing Pelosi directly but is lobbying members of Congress individually. Perhaps the strategy there is to deal with members who aren’t as far to the left as Pelosi and aren’t as rigidly anti-Bush as she is either. Dealing directly with her would probably be counterproductive.

Gateway Pundit notes that moves like this one have made the Pelosi Congress as upopular abroad as it is at home. While I don’t mind annoying the Chinese over the Dalai Lama (a move that seems to have Richard Gere’s fingerprints all over it), it’s hard to reach any conclusion but this: The Democrats in charge of Congress just don’t know what they’re doing, on any subject or issue, and can’t help screwing up everything they touch.