Meredith Vieira gave herself some cover. It might have been a bit awkward for her to openly avow that she was excited as an anti-war protester, or as a Democrat, a liberal, a proud member of the MSM, etc., to see Nancy Pelosi sworn in as Speaker. Meredith settled for the less controversial formulation: "It's a very historic day on Capitol Hill. Nancy Pelosi, first woman to become Speaker of the House. I'm excited as a woman to see that happen."
Why do I suspect that Meredith wouldn't be quite so excited if, say, Republican Deb Pryce of Ohio were about to grab the Speaker's gavel?
View video here.Interviewed a bit later by Matt Lauer, John McCain flashed some of the "straight talk" and sense of humor that has endeared him to the press and many voters. Asked Lauer: "Give me a sense of how you're feeling as a Republican this morning as this new Congress takes over. The President said it was a thumping in the mid-term elections. That thumping hits home today with the committees being turned over to Democrats. How are you feeling about this?"
The typical politician might have trotted out some insincere tripe about "the American people have spoken and I look forward to working with the new majority," blah, blah, blah,
But McCain replied with a laugh in which Lauer joined: "Very sad."
View video here.
Continued McCain: "We forgot why we came to Washington. We lost our way. We got engaged in ear-marking and pork barrel projects. We valued power over principle and we paid a very heavy price for it."
Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
