Couric & Co.
January 19, 2007 4:25 PM

Shocking News From Capitol Hill

Capitol Hill correspondent Sharyl Attkisson spends her days roaming the halls of Congress. This week, she has some shocking revelations.

(CBS)


As Congress wraps up its first weeks of the new session with Democrats in the majority, everybody is in a state of shock. Or so you'd think, listening to the rhetoric from both parties.

First, like Captain Renault in Casablanca, House Republicans were "shocked, SHOCKED" to find themselves excluded by Democrats in crafting bills for the so-called first hundred hours!

Roy Blunt of Missouri, the Republican Whip, was not just shocked, but very, very sad: "Our ideas still have the right to be heard in this debate, and I think it's a mistake when Democrats don't do what they said they'd do in the campaign to make this process open to Republicans."

Behind the scenes, Democrats were saying, "Hey, it's the same thing Republicans did to us for twelve years." But "they-did-it-to-us-so-we're-getting-them-back" is not exactly the kind of defense you want to use officially on camera. So Democrats simply said that Republicans would have their voices heard, but it would have to wait until after the first hundred hours.

Shocking.

Democrats, now in the majority, also had some shocks of their own.

When it was revealed that the Democrats' minimum wage hike the House passed would not apply to the people of American Samoa — a U.S. territory of Pacific islands, where tuna canning is big business, where one of the main two tuna canners is StarKist (which is based, coincidentally, in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's home district in California). Well, the press started asking questions (because that's just the way we are) and Pelosi's office was "shocked, SHOCKED" to find herself the subject of inquiring minds. Her staffers almost sounded downright offended that anyone would even think of asking the question.

Pelosi's office denied our CBS News interview request on the topic, but later told everyone the whole exempting-American-Samoa-from-minimum-wage-thing was just an oversight. If it's not fixed during a House and Senate conference committee, she'll probably be shocked.

Stay tuned, because no doubt there's more shocking news ahead from Capitol Hill.

Tags:
Sharyl Attkisson ,
Congress
Topics:
Field Notes

Video and Galleries

Add a Comment
by one_american January 19, 2007 6:33 PM PST
Shocked.

Is anyone shocked that Nancy Pelosi is running a corrupt House right from the start?

I'm not shocked. Not at all. It's just an "oversight".

Is anyone shocked that Dirty Harry Reid gets a pass on his shady land deal?

I'm not shocked. Not at all. It's just an "oversight".

Pelosi claimed she would "clean house" and run the "cleanest" house in history.

But it still stinks of fish.
Reply to this comment
by tdpubs January 19, 2007 7:33 PM PST
I'm shocked that the writer did not go into detail into the back-story of the story she is writing. I am also shocked that the press is finally commenting on the goings-ons of the congress now that the Democrats are in the majority. Where were the press when we were being robbed and raped by congress and the military industrial complex for the last 30 years?
The issues are not simply about political parties, it's about who controls the country; less than 1% of us or all all of the American people.
Thank God we have a chance to recover our representative democracy before its too late. We all have to take the time to dig out the details of the headlines.
Vigilance!
Dennis Francis
Reply to this comment
by mhloftin January 19, 2007 8:00 PM PST
Exclusion of American Samoa in the minimum wage increase is an unfortunate oversight either intentional or unintentional; the damage is done. A Territory that contributes to the peace effort in Iraq and is American as baseball and apple pie has been shown great disregard and disrespect. Visit the website http://www.asg-gov.net/ to see the following American news items.


Remember to Pray for our Troops serving in Iraq and elsewhere in the world!

*

State Funeral Services for Sgt. Tina Time [MORE]
*

God Bless Our Troops Bring Them Home Safely!
*

Governor Mourns the loss of another American Samoan soldier, SGT. Tina Time of Futiga [VIEW]
*

State Funeral Services for SSG. Tuialu'ulu'u. [MORE]
*

AMERICAN SAMOA LINKS TO IRAQ LIVE VIDEO FEED!

Sincerely,

Michael Loftin
Lake Dallas, TX
Reply to this comment
by cbelster January 21, 2007 12:31 AM PST
Does Congress keep a child pychologist on staff?
Reply to this comment
by jcorbin1958 January 21, 2007 10:17 AM PST
Nancy Pelosi is probably just as corrupt as the rest of congress.
Reply to this comment

About Couric & Co.

Go for a look behind the scenes at The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric for stuff we like and for surprises. It's also a place for you to post comments and join our conversation about the news.

Add to your favorite news reader
google
yahoo
msn
  • MOST POPULAR
  • Viewed
  • Commented