What's Couric Drinking? She Raises Hypocritical Stands By Obama and Pelosi
Published: 3/3/2010 8:36 PM ET
On the day when Obama pressed forward with using "reconciliation" to pass his health bill in the Senate - and while MSNBC hosts obsess over Republican hypocrisy in now opposing it when they used it to pass bills when the GOP had the Senate majority - Couric recalled that "in 2007 when President Obama was a Senator, he criticized the use of the reconciliation process in health care reform."
Following a story on the ethics violations swirling around Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel which forced him to step down Wednesday as Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, and how additional issues are still being probed, including his failure to report income and pay taxes on a villa in the Dominican Republic, his use of four rent controlled apartments in Harlem and his failure to report $500,000 in assets, Couric remarked:
And yet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi...stood by him for a year. How does that square with her famous promise 'to drain the swamp' and clamp down on ethics breaches?
Reporter Nancy Cordes, however, came to Pelosi's defense, contending "Pelosi was really in a bind here.
Rangel is a 40-year veteran of the House, he's very popular among the
members, but once the ethics committee made its decision she had to
step up and do something."
From the Wednesday, March 3 CBS Evening News:
From the Wednesday, March 3 CBS Evening News:
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.KATIE COURIC: Meanwhile, Bob, in 2007 when President Obama was a Senator, he criticized the use of the reconciliation process in health care reform. Is this a case of where you stand depends on where you sit?
BOB SCHIEFFER: I guess it does because the people of the out party is always against reconciliation and the one that has the majority always thinks it's the right way to go. The President was in the minority then and now he knows Democrats are in the majority.
....
COURIC: And yet House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nancy, stood by him for a year. How does that square with her famous promise 'to drain the swamp' and clamp down on ethics breaches?
NANCY CORDES: Well, this is one of the reasons that Americans are so fed up with Congress because they feel like members say one thing and then do another. But Speaker Pelosi was really in a bind here. Rangel is a 40-year veteran of the House, he's very popular among the members, but once the ethics committee made its decision she had to step up and do something, Katie.
