Pelosi’s office objects to Macomb Daily story

I got a call from Nancy Pelosi’s office this morning and talked to a staffer who objected to my Page 1 story in The Macomb Daily today that says the former House speaker is at odds with Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

On Sunday’s “60 Minutes” broadcast, Pelosi was accused of insider trading, misusing privileged information she received while working on legislation to cash in on Wall Street.

In response to that CBS report, Stabenow introduced legislation banning insider trading on Capitol Hill while Pelosi loudly objected to the “60 Minutes” story, insisting that it was false and misleading.

But Pelosi’s office said today that she is not in conflict with fellow Democrat Stabenow and, in fact, supports the senator’s bill, known as Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK.

Pelosi apparently told the “60 Minutes” crew that she supports an insider trading ban which has languished in the House but they never included that information in their report.  Since the broadcast aired, she has publicly expressed support for Stabenow’s STOCK bill.

Meanwhile, the House Minority Leader continues to insist that CBS did a hatchet job on her and she has unqualified support for that assertion from the watchdog group CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

According to CREW, there is considerable long-term evidence that members of Congress benefit financially from the inside information they receive, but the group said “60 Minutes” severely missed the mark by targeting Pelosi and her successor, House Speaker John Boehner. 

Jeremy Miller of CREW wrote this on their website:

“The transaction in question for Pelosi dates back to her time as Speaker of the House in 2008.  In March of that year, her husband purchased 5,000 shares of Visa stock as part of an initial public offering.  This purchase, ‘60 Minutes’ contends, came ‘just as a troublesome piece of legislation that would have hurt credit card companies began making its way through the House …the credit card legislation never made it to the floor of the House.’  The implication is clear:  Pelosi and her husband purchased the stock, and in order to profit financially from the purchase, Speaker Pelosi killed legislation the credit card industry opposed.  If true, CREW would be the first to sound the alarm.  But the facts simply don’t add up.”

The reality is that the credit card bill was passed by a House committee in October 2008 on the last day before a recess. That was followed by the election and a “lame duck” session. Pelosi’s staff makes the case that prior to October the House was understandably preoccupied with the financial crisis and then dealt with the auto industry bailouts in the lame duck session.

That sequence of events doesn’t indicate a conflict on Pelosi’s part or any attempt by her to block the bill.

As for Boehner, Miller offers this summary:

“Similarly, Rep. Boehner received no better treatment.  ‘60 Minutes’ suggests Rep. Boehner’s opposition to the ‘public option’ as part of the health care overhaul stemmed from health insurance stocks he purchased shortly before the public option was killed.  This is laughable on its face.  Not a single Republican supported the public option — nor did the majority of Blue Dog Democrats and the White House — and as Minority Leader in the House, Boehner had little power to ‘kill’ it.  Boehner’s spokesman sums it up nicely: ‘The idea that the Republican Leader in the House opposed the public option … for personal profit is, frankly, stupid.’”