What is Katie Couric drinking these days? Who has taken over her
body? The CBS Evening News anchor on Wednesday night cited hypocritical
positions or actions taken by President Barack Obama and House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi.
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:
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.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here [1] to follow him on Twitter.