"The Center for Public Integrity [1]'s 20th anniversary dinner at the Newseum was wrapping up Thursday night," the Washington Post's "The Reliable Source" column reported in Tuesday's newspaper [2], "when things took a lively if unexpected turn: Former NBC correspondent Richard Valeriani, now a blogger living in Connecticut, took the stage uninvited and railed against the GOP."
The Post got ahold of him and related "he said he got frustrated after listening to remarks by Rep. Darrell Issa - an 'egregious' example, Valeriani said, of 'obstructionists who put party ahead of the country.'" Ironically, emcee Christiane Amanpour, who certainly agreed with his sentiment, "politely dragged him off."
The Huffington Post, where Valeriani blogs, recounted [3]:
Richard Valeriani stormed the stage to complain that Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) should not have been allowed to speak at the event. "He represents a party which has been nothing but obstructionist," sputtered Valeriani, amid much booing and hissing from the audience. "It has opposed every initiative of this administration and I don't think this audience ought to hear only that point of view."
In one of those blog posts last month [4], posts which convey a stream of consciousness from Valeriani who covered the White House for many years, he denounced [5] the House GOP's "Pledge to America" as "recycled sludge of GOP's 1994 Contract with America."
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here [6] to follow him on Twitter.