Life in the political spotlight isn’t getting any easier for Nancy Pelosi:

The two meetings House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attended before a vote on a resolution labeling the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a genocide foreshadowed the biggest political misstep of her speakership.

In the hours before a House panel approved the resolution Oct. 10, Pelosi was told in a tense meeting with Turkey’s ambassador that the vote would endanger his country’s alliance with the U.S. She had a warmer session with an Armenian cleric and representatives of Armenian-Americans, who have a large presence in her home state of California. In both, she made clear she intended to bring the resolution to a full House vote.

Since then, Pelosi, 67, has been in retreat. Her vow to bring the measure to a vote outraged Turkey, which recalled its ambassador and threatened to cut off the use of its military bases to resupply U.S. troops in Iraq. On Oct. 17, Pelosi said it “remains to be seen” whether the vote would occur after more than a dozen lawmakers pulled their names from the measure and some Democrats asked her to drop it.

“It’s a good resolution but a horrible time to be considering it on the House floor,” said Representative Mike Ross of Arkansas, one of the Democrats who withdrew his support.

“She dug in her heels to find that she didn’t have her members with her,” said Representative Ray LaHood, an Illinois Republican. “If you get too far out in front of them, it can be embarrassing.”

Tell us about it. And it isn’t as if others haven’t noticed the confusion emanating from the Speaker’s office:

There are three relevant questions concerning the Armenian genocide.

(a) Did it happen?

(b) Should the U.S. House of Representatives be expressing itself on this now?

(c) Was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s determination to bring this to a vote, knowing that it risked provoking Turkey into withdrawing crucial assistance to American soldiers in Iraq, a conscious (columnist Thomas Sowell) or unconscious (blogger Mickey Kaus) attempt to sabotage the U.S. war effort?

The answers are:

(a) Yes, unequivocally.

(b) No, unequivocally.

(c) God only knows.

It would be wrong to think this, but Republicans could perhaps be forgiven for believing that they no longer need to fight that hard against the Speaker’s initiatives. She seems to do a perfectly fine job in sabotaging them by herself.