Kathleen Parker, CNN's resident pseudo-conservative, gushed over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday's Parker-Spitzer, trumpeting how the San Francisco liberal stood amongst her fellow Democrats: "She's the 'mama grizzly' in this crowd, is she not?" Parker also stated she had "great admiration" for Pelosi, and even cheered her on: "Go, Nancy!" [audio available here]
The host, along with her on-air partner Eliot Spitzer, shared yet another moment of mutual agreement during the lead segment of their program, ripping President Obama for his proposed tax compromise with congressional Republicans. Spitzer wasted little time in launching his attack on the executive: "He is like a school kid who's been sent home again to redo his homework because it was that bad the first time around. And you know what? They're right. He embraced George Bush's economic policies, and the Democrats in the House are saying, start over."
Parker agreed with him to a point, but tried to emphasize a possible long term benefit for Obama:
[Video embedded below the page break]
PARKER: I have to say that just objectively looking at this, it looks terrible for the President in the moment....But I have to say, in the long run, it could actually help him, because the truth is, the President has to get elected in 2012- reelected, that is- and he's got to get the moderates and the centrists and the independents back. So, he may end up looking good in the longer run, but for right now, it seems like he's is in a terrible bind.
The former Democratic governor continued his fire at the President, which ultimately drew out his co-host's superlative for Pelosi:
SPITZER: No. He looks weak. You can't come back from looking weak, in my view. He has no strength. He stands for nothing. He has forsaken ideology for cutting any deal in sight. He did it initially with the Republicans on the stimulus. He did it on health care. He did with Wall Street. He does it with anybody who walks in with a deal. He doesn't know how to negotiate. He doesn't know how to walk away. He doesn't know how to say- no, here's a line in the sand, and I think that the House Democrats are finally standing up and saying, we stand for something and that's important.
PARKER: You know who does know how to draw a line in the sand? I just want to say this-
SPITZER: Yeah?
PARKER: With great admiration- nonpartisan.
SPITZER: Yeah.
PARKER: Nancy Pelosi.
SPITZER: That's right.
PARKER: You know, Nancy Pelosi is just- she is- she's the 'mama grizzly' in this crowd, is she not?
SPITZER: Well, she-
PARKER: No, she's backing the caucus, rather than the President. She's clearly made a choice-
SPITZER: Right. That is her job, and so, I'm not surprised at some level she did that. But I think you're exactly right. When it came to health care, she is the one who puts some backbone in the White House that was wavering about what to do. She is the one who has marshaled the Democrats in the House of Representatives throughout this process, and even at the moment of a lame duck Congress, she is saying, we believe in something- we're going to act on it.
PARKER: Go, Nancy!
It's no surprise that these two CNN hosts are on the same side. Just over a week earlier, on December 1, Parker agreed with Spitzer to a point about how the country is apparently "being held hostage by 42 Republican senators" and cracked back, "I got stuck on the image of being held hostage by 42 Republicans- talk about a bad date." Before their program started, during an appearance on Anderson Cooper 360 on September 9, the hosts were unanimous that "well-spoken" Imam Feisal Rauf had changed few minds concerning his planned mosque near Ground Zero in New York City with his Larry King interview.
