C-SPAN, Pelosi, and ROTFLMAO

It's interesting to compare C-SPAN's challenge to Congress, demanding open negotiations during the final stages of the health care debate, with Nancy Pelosi's reponse to that request.

First, C-SPAN's challenge (emphasis added):

C-SPAN Challenges to Open Health Care Talks to TV Coverage

The head of C-SPAN has implored Congress to open up the last leg of health care reform negotiations to the public, as top Democrats lay plans to hash out the final product among themselves. 

C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote to leaders in the House and Senate Dec. 30 urging them to open "all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings," to televised coverage on his network. 

"The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of the sessions LIVE and in their entirety," he wrote.

...
Democratic leaders could bypass the traditional conference committee process, in which lawmakers from both parties and chambers meet to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill. Top Democrats in the House, Senate and White House were meeting Tuesday evening to figure out the final product in three-way talks before sending it back to both chambers for a final vote.
...
This format would seem ideal for closed-door meetings, which congressional Democrats have used many times to figure out sensitive provisions in the health care bill -- though President Obama pledged during the campaign to open up health care talks to C-SPAN's cameras. 

"That's what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are," Obama said at a debate against Hillary Clinton in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, 2008.

Asked about the request to Congress, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he hadn't seen the letter. 

[Gibbs is such a goober, ain't he?]

Now, here's Nancy Pelosi's response to the challenge (make sure you're not drinking anything ... snort alert!):

Pelosi tells C-SPAN "There has never been a more open process"

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended Congress' work on a healthcare bill Tuesday saying the process has displayed historic transparency, just as C-SPAN mounts an effort to open the negotiations.
...
"There has never been a more open process for any legislation," Pelosi said at a press conference.

Pelosi also hinted that holding informal negotiations--likely without TV cameras--might be the most practical way to push the legislation through.

"We will do what is necessary to pass the bill," Pelosi said.


Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), assistant to the Speaker, said the healthcare bill had been "subjected to unprecedented level of public scrutiny."

Pressed on whether C-SPAN cameras would be allowed in negotiations, Van Hollen hedged.

"We don't even know if there's going to be a conference committee," he said, alluding to the likelihood that Democrats will reconcile the two bills behind closed doors.

"We will do what is necessary to pass the bill" said Obamatron Pelosi.   Hmmmm ... such as only the Dems having behind-doors meetings with Obama, demanding that 1,000+ page bills be read within 72 hours and then voted on, bribing congressmen to get the bill passed?

[Click here to check out Sweetness & Light's accounting of the $1.2 billion the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says these bribes will cost us over the next 10 years.]