Pelosi Iraq trip is symbolic

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Iraq is a clear sign the newly empowered Democratic Congress is not going to abide by the notion that foreign policy is the sole province of the White House.

While President Bush met with military leaders in the Oval Office Friday, she and anti-war Rep. Jack Murtha turned up in Baghdad.

The timing of the trip, from the Bush administration's point of view, couldn't have been worse. It came just days after the president asked Congress in his State of the Union address to give his revised Iraq strategy a chance to work.

It also provided for dueling photo ops: Bush at the White House with his commanders and Pelosi and her congressional delegation in the heavily fortified Green Zone with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The lawmakers also visited U.S. troops on what they billed as a fact-finding mission and one to "thank our troops."

While the administration did not take issue with the visit by Pelosi and Murtha, Bush on Friday had a message for congressional opponents who want to stop his plan to increase U.S. troop strength in Iraq. "I'm the decision-maker" on the war effort, he said.

An increasingly assertive Congress is signaling that it, too, wants a part in those decisions.