Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is calling on President Bush to consider boycotting the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing.

Pelosi does not favor boycotting the games themselves, but believes the possibility of boycotting the ceremonies is something that should remain an option, according to Drew Hammill, her press secretary.

Pelosi, who has a long record of criticizing China’s human rights record, has come under pressure from groups critical of China’s governing of Tibet, which China took control of in 1949. Last month, violent demonstrations against China’s rule of the province broke out, giving momentum to worldwide calls for a boycott of the opening ceremonies.

Pelosi met with Tibet’s exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, during a trip to India over the congressional recess. On Friday, she said the International Olympic Committee made a mistake in awarding the 2008 Olympics to China, but did not suggest boycotts of the opening ceremonies should be considered.

She also said she opposed boycotting the games because it would prevent U.S. athletes from having their moment in the sun.

“I believe a boycott of the Beijing Olympics would unfairly harm our athletes who have worked so hard to prepare for the competition,” she said in a press statement.

Bush last year accepted an invitation from Chinese President Hu Jintao to attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games, which China sees as a chance to highlight its emergence as a global power. The opening ceremonies will be televised around the world to an audience of billions.

“I’m looking forward to going,” President Bush said at the meeting last September with Hu, according to The New York Times. “It’s going to be a great moment of pride for the Chinese people.”

White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said in a statement e-mailed to The Hill that Bush still intends to attend the opening ceremonies, despite the recent violence in Tibet.

“The president views the Olympics as a sporting event and an important opportunity to support America’s athletes,” she said. “He has also made it very clear that the Olympics will shine a bright light on China regarding a variety of issues. These games will provide China with an opportunity to put its best face forward.”

Demonstrations led by Buddhist monks against China’s rule of Tibet last month descended into violence that left at least 30 demonstrators dead and possibly as many as 100, according to the Dalai Lama’s exiled government in India. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said at least 10 demonstrators were killed.

China blamed the violence on the Dalai Lama, who has criticized China’s rule of Tibet. He has not called for a boycott of the Olympics.  

On Monday, several Free Tibet groups and Democratic members of Congress held a rally outside the White House for Tibet.

Groups such as the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) are not calling for a boycott of the Olympics, but say foreign leaders like Bush should skip the opening ceremonies to show their displeasure with China’s human rights record in Tibet and other countries.

“We do call on world leaders not to attend the opening ceremonies,” said ICT President John Ackerly. “But we are not calling on countries not to send their athletes.”

Ackerly said his group is trying to work with Pelosi to support its calls, and is looking for members to introduce and support a congressional resolution urging Bush to skip the opening ceremonies. He said his group also was reaching out to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.), as well as Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), who both attended the rally.

“It is a big ask for the president not to go to the opening ceremonies because he said multiple times that he is [going],” Ackerly said. “But between now and then there is a chance for this to happen, that we keep him home.”

Ackerly also said the president could consider skipping the opening ceremonies but attending the games’ closing ceremonies, which are seen as less important.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week became the first world leader to hint that he may skip the opening ceremonies to protest the violence in Tibet.

“China wants to demonstrate its ability to hold an Olympics,” said Kucinich, a former presidential candidate and one of the most prominent liberals in the House. “Let us have an Olympics of human rights where China can win a gold medal by freeing Tibet.”

Several resolutions have been introduced in this Congress calling for President Bush not to send athletes to Beijing. Those measures have targeted a number of Chinese policies, particularly its relationship with Sudan’s government. China, the largest foreign investor in Sudan, has been criticized for blocking stronger actions by the United Nations to crack down on Sudan for mass killings in Darfur, a region of the country.

So far, however, these resolutions have gathered few co-sponsors.