House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters that it was “wise” and “courageous” for President Barack Obama to change his position and embrace a Democratic super PAC so conservative brothers David and Charles Koch would not decide the outcome of the 2012 presidential election.
“The president’s made a decision — which I think was a wise one — that he was not going to unilaterally disarm and leave the field to the Koch brothers to decide who would be president of the United States and who would control the Congress. And his commitment was for full disclosure,” she said Thursday during her weekly press briefing at the Capitol. (RELATED: More on Nancy Pelosi)
Pelosi and New York Democratic Rep. Steve Israel were asked if President Obama has damaged his credibility by changing his position on super PACs.
“Well, I don’t think at all,” said Israel. “Look, I’m a big baseball fan. I’ve never been to a baseball game ever where one side was told ‘you don’t get at-bats.’ … He’s going to compete fairly and effectively. And as the leader said, nobody should expect this president to cede the election to Karl Rove and the Koch brothers.”
“We believe that contributions should be disclosed. We believe in transparency, honesty. And we’re going to compete based on those standards. This is the moment of truth for the truth in campaigns.”
Pelosi added, “I’m glad that the president took the courageous stand that he did, because the fact is you never know what’s next with these guys. They’ll come up with some other way to channel tens of — or hundreds of millions of dollars — small price for them to pay out of their massive fortunes, just the price of doing business for them to reap the benefits of policies that are counter to the middle class and to their benefit.”
Democratic Reps. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Keith Ellison of Minnesota joined Pelosi and Israel to push for passage of the DISCLOSE Act. The bill would prohibit oil-drilling companies, large government contractors and companies receiving TARP bailout funds from making political contributions to election campaigns.