Opinion: Nancy Pelosi to Jon Stewart: ‘I’m no hypocrite’; Jim Cramer not happy either

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is used to the limelight, even the barbs.

The California Democrat, a 12-term representative from San Francisco, learned politics from her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., the congressman and mayor of Baltimore. Pelosi is the first woman to serve as minority leader and speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Also, with her husband Paul Pelosi, she’s the mother of five children and seven grandchildren.

As you might imagine, she’s accustomed to taking the heat in the kitchen. Also adept at navigating the good ol’ boy network to the top.

So when Comedy Central “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart recently called Pelosi a hypocrite for embracing budget rules that strip Republicans of their right to filibuster -- a budget maneuver Pelosi blasted when Democrats were in the minority -- she did not go quietly in the night.

Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami fired back.

“She was not talking about reconciliation in that clip -- it was about judicial nominations and the nuclear option. This has nothing to do with reconciliation ... Jon Stewart had it wrong,” Elshami said.

As the Hill’s Bob Cusak noted, ‘We don’t want to get in the way of a good fight, but a review of newspaper articles and transcripts shows that Pelosi is dead on and Stewart is dead wrong.’

Keep in mind, this is the same Jon Stewart who recently dumped on Jim Cramer, the former hedge fund manager and host of CNBC’s ‘Mad Money,’ for underplaying the risks to investors in the financial markets.

Cramer, who infamously advised his listeners to invest in Bear Stearns just before the company’s stock took a dive, has since said he felt sabotaged by Stewart.

‘He told my staff that it was going to be fun, convivial, no clips,’ Cramer recently told the Lantern’s Dan McKeever. ‘His goal was just to humiliate and destroy me and probably get me fired, and last I looked, I still have a show.’

Cramer said that although the interview was ‘allegedly disastrous’ for his own career, ‘my [ratings] have never been better.’

Maybe the silver lining for Pelosi?

-- Johanna Neuman

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