Two more tales for the Republican hypocrisy record. First, there's John Boehner who was all about attacking Democrats over the fact that all of the healthcare negotiations haven't been televised.
Boehner had been a rather vocal supporter of C-SPAN's request to televise the earlier negotiations, writing to the network in January that "House Republicans strongly endorse your proposal and stand ready to work with you to make it a reality."
But now that he's been asked to participate in a televised healthcare reform summit, he's not so sure.
Last night, Fox News' Greta Van Susteren asked him what he thinks about the fact that it's going to be televised, and added that "the American people are probably delighted that we're getting this televised."
Boehner responded: "I think that's fine, but you know, is this a political event or is this going to be a real conversation?"
Van Susteren didn't let that slide: "Well, except that we've been hammering them about the transparency. The president said, you know, he was going to put everything on C-SPAN, so we can't criticize him now for when he finally does put it on C-SPAN."
Boehner said "well, that's fine," but he doesn't "want to walk into some set-up."
As with everything else, it has to be transparency, or lack thereof, on Republicans' terms. As demonstrated by Jon Kyl, who was right there with Boehner in blasting Dems over the healthcare conference negotiations, but what happens when Kyl is in on the closed door negotiations?
Fox News reports that Kyl in particular is perfectly happy with backroom deals this time:
While much has been made of “backroom deals” over healthcare reform, no such outcry has come on the jobs bill. One reason? A handful of Republicans have been in the back room this time. Kyl, who loudly decried the closed door sausage-making on healthcare legislation, had a softer tone on the jobs bill.
“The truth of the matter is, a lot of things here are done by staff behind closed doors, and it’s not always the wrong way to put something together, as long as you have plenty of time for that product to get out to members so they can evaluate it, have the public take a look at it. ... If you’re going to forgo the committee process, then you at least have to get it out to members so they can reflect on it. And that’s why you can’t vote on it by Thursday or Friday,” Kyl said.
No real news there. Republicans are for whatever they're for, like protecting Medicare from Democrats unless they're not, like Ryan's plan for eliminating Medicare. But there is an interesting element to these stories. Fox News? Calling out two Republicans over back-room deal hypocrisy? Maybe they're taking this teabagging thing seriously.