Pelosi and the Consequences of Throwing Stones in Glass Houses

COMMENTARY | "When the time is right," Democrat House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told Talking Points Memo of former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, "I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff."

You'd think that after the verbal spanking Gingrich administered to Scott Pelly on national television regarding the rules during the GOP debate last month that Pelosi would know better than to challenge Gingrich on ethics.

"Such an act would be a fundamental violation of the rules of the House," Gingrich schooled Pelosi after his meeting with Donald Trump, CNS reported.

Once duly chastised by Gingrich, Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami quickly insisted she "was clearly referring to the extensive amount of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware."

Clearly we are now supposed to believe that by implying she was sitting on some secret hot potato cooked by her and three others behind a locked door "in an undisclosed location for a year" two decades ago she was merely referring to documents that are already a matter of public record.

Perhaps Pelosi doesn't understand what happens when you start throwing stones in a glass house.

The problem for Pelosi is she knows Gingrich would have no problem "going there." In fact, Gingrich even took the time "to thank Speaker Pelosi" for what he considered an "early Christmas gift," Bloomberg reported.

Perhaps the rapid walk-back by camp Pelosi was inspired by a sudden fear Gingrich knows a lot about her too. That little trip she took to Syria in 2007, for example, where she violated the Logan Act.

Despite White House objections then-Speaker Pelosi fly to Syria where she claimed to bring a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to President Bashar Assad saying Israel was ready for peace talks. The only problem was, as reported by the Washington Post, Olmert immediately denied having entrusted Pelosi with that "peace message."

Then there's the little nuggets revealed by Peter Schweitzer in his book Throw Them All Out where -- among other things -- Pelosi spent two years blocking credit card reform legislation while purchasing $1 million to $5 million of Visa stock to have her investment "skyrocket 203 percent."

In his discussion of Schweitzer's book, Wynton Hall of Big Government asked the obvious question: "How did Nancy Pelosi snag one of the most coveted initial public offerings in history?" In the words of Schweitzer, Pelosi mysteriously received her Visa IPO almost two weeks after preventing passage of the Credit Card Fair Fee Act. Had this legislation passed it would have significantly cut Visa's profits by lowering the "interchange fees" retailers pay Visa when customers use Visa cards for purchases.

Of course, despite evidence to the contrary, Pelosi told ABC the story was false.

Business Insider revealed from Sweizer's book the millions of dollars in earmarks Pelosi has procured over the years for development projects in her district -- which curiously happen to increase the value of property owned by her and her husband.

There's also the curious quid pro quo/Where's Waldo Russel Ranch shenanigans that was reported by Washington Times last month. Apparently Pelosi used her position as Speaker to help Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, the daughter of multimillion-dollar real estate tycoon Angelo Tsakopoulos, to become the ambassador to Hungary in exchange for an opportunity to get in on a land deal that made her millions. Strangely, Pelosi only "voluntarily decided" to disclose ownership of the property "for clarity and transparency purposes" after Washington Post started asking questions.

In 2006 Pelosi vowed that she would "drain the swamp" and that Democrats would run "the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history."

But here's the thing about draining swamps -- which may explain why Pelosi never kept that promise: Once you remove the muddy water to expose what's on the bottom people get to see the dirty little secrets you've been hiding in the muck too.