Nancy Pelosi

House investigators on Monday charged Rep. Maxine Waters with "improperly" exerting influence to help bail out a bank in which her husband held stock, handing more ammunition to Republicans eager to blast House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for overseeing a "House of scandal."

The House ethics panel said the office of the senior California Democrat violated conflict of interest rules by repeatedly lobbying the Treasury Department for bailout money on behalf of minority-owned OneUnited in which her husband held as much as $350,000 in stock. The bank received a $12 million slice of the taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout.

Ms. Waters has fiercely proclaimed her innocence and asked the committee to make public the 10-page "statement of alleged violation" against her. Like Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York, she has opted to let the matter play out in a public hearing before the bipartisan ethics committee, demanding that one be scheduled as soon as possible...

The head of the Republican Party on Friday urged members to step up their efforts for the fall elections amid cautious confidence about the GOP winning several governorships and perhaps seizing control of Congress from President Barack Obama's party.

"We can't rest now," GOP chairman Michael Steele told the Republican National Committee. "Everything we've been doing, and all that we must do, needs to be ramped up and maxed out in the next three months."

"Sleep? What's that? We can't sleep until November 3rd," he added...

The Tea Party just got an official voice in Washington, thanks to a leading Republican representative who recently filed the necessary paperwork to create a Tea Party Caucus for the grassroots group.

Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) says her newly formed House Tea Party Caucus was approved Monday, so she plans to invite everyday Americans to talk to members about Tea Party issues. She filed the necessary paperwork last week and requested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) approve the caucus.

"The purpose is to listen," Bachmann reports. "Congress will not be driving the Tea Party. We are not a voice for the Tea Party, nor are we vouching for the Tea Party. We are simply listening because the main thing we've heard from people is that Congress is not listening to the people"....

Almost four months before the midterm election that could catapult Majority Leader John Boehner into the speakership, he's beginning to build up his personal image and launch a PR offensive to explain what he’d do if he ran the House.

At a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor at the St. Regis Hotel in downtown D.C., Boehner said the first three things he would do is repeal the Democrats’ health care overhaul bill, block any attempts to pass cap-and-trade energy legislation and keep taxes low.

He also revealed he has three brothers who are unemployed, has no immediate plans to quit smoking and portrays himself as more of a straight talker who means what he says — something he’s pitching as a contrast to President Barack Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)....

The top Senate Republican said Thursday the GOP is "on a comeback" politically as Democrats scrambled to bury the hatchet after several days of intraparty squabbling over their chances to hold the House in November's elections.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, denied any friction with the White House, dismissing reports that she and her House colleagues are angry at the president for ignoring their interests.

"There is absolutely no reason to think that the White House has been anything but cooperative with us in terms of our political efforts to retain control of the Congress," Mrs. Pelosi told reporters...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- House Republicans have introduced a bill designed to repeal the government-run health care system President Barack Obama put into place that includes massive abortion funding. The measure would repeal the law and replace it with an alternative GOP lawmakers support to improve the current system.

Although pro-abortion Speaker Nancy Pelosi would likely never allow hearings and a vote on the measure, Republicans say it helps them frame the health care debate heading into the November elections.

Rep. Roy Blunt, a pro-life Republican leader from Missouri, says the bill is needed because polling data shows Americans increasingly opposing the pro-abortion health care law...

(CNSNews.com) -- Speaking at the Asian-American and Pacific Islanders Summit held at the Capitol on Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for amnesty for illegal aliens in the United States, a proposal she called a “path to legalization."

“Hopefully, we will be moving toward comprehensive immigration reform that secures our borders, enforces our laws, protects our workers, honors family unification and has a path to legalization--so that we have certainty in our country and respect for the contributions that newcomers bring to us,” she said on Capitol Hill on Wednesday...

(CNSNews.com) - While pointing out that it is the responsibility of the federal government to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) said Thursday it is cheaper to treat teens for drug use than it is to interdict drugs being smuggled across the border.

CNSNews.com pointed out to the speaker at her weekly press briefing that a recent Justice Department report indicated that one in five U.S. teenagers used drugs last year, and then asked: “Are you committed to sealing the border against the influx of illegal drugs from Mexico and, if so, do you have a target date in mind for getting that done?”

“Well if your question is about drugs, I’m for reducing demand in the United States,” said Pelosi. “That is what our responsibility is on this subject.  read more »

More and more Americans want the recently passed healthcare reform bill repealed -- and several states are already taking action to opt out of abortion coverage under the measure.

The latest Rasmussen poll now shows 58 percent of American voters want the bill repealed while 38 percent oppose repeal. That compares with 55 percent and 42 percent, respectively, almost three weeks earlier. Tom McCluskey of Family Research Council Action does not find the trend surprising.

"As Nancy Pelosi said before the vote was taken, we need to pass this thing so the American people can see what's in it," he recalls. "And now that the American people are seeing what's in it, they're getting more and more opposed to the legislation"...

Dealmaking is a delicate dance on Capitol Hill. But if the health care debate is any gauge, lawmakers are getting pretty good at doing the "twist."

With several Democratic holdouts having been persuaded to cross over and support the health care bill in the past week -- and over the past year -- the public is getting a glimpse at the backroom arm-twisting that is muscling the legislation over the finish line.

"There is a lot of dealmaking going on, as though some deal could actually cover up a vote for one of the worst bills I have ever seen," House Republican Leader John Boehner told Fox News on Friday....