Now that's journalism

This morning on Meet the Press, Rachel Madow challenged Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) in the way politicians should be called to account. Here's the exchange as reported on HuffingtonPost:

A heated exchange took place during NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday when MSNBC host Rachel Maddow accused Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) of hypocrisy for railing against a spending bill in public while touting its benefits in his home district.

Appearing alongside each other during a panel session, Maddow pivoted from a discussion on job creation to note that Schock had appeared at an event Friday touting a grant program that he had voted against.

"You, in your district, I just read that you were at a community college touting a $350,000 green technology education program, talking about how great that was going to be for your district," she said. "You voted against the bill that created that grant. That's happening a lot with Republicans sort of taking credit for things that Democratic bills do and then Republicans simultaneously touting their votes against them and trashing them. That, I think, is a problem that needs to be resolved within your caucus. Because you seem like a very nice person but that is a very hypocritical stance to take."

Schock was caught off guard, but eventually came back and asked Rachel if she was going to give back the Bush tax cuts that she received, while continuing to rail against them.

That's not quite to the point. Schock went home and talked about the program as though it were something he supported, when he had voted against it. I don't think Rachel pretends to like the Bush tax cuts, even though she doesn't turn down what she's legally entitled to.

Even the very conservative Washington Times takes a dim view of this tactic, reporting:

"More than a dozen Republican lawmakers, while denouncing the stimulus to the media and their constituents, privately sent letters to just one of the federal government's many agencies seeking stimulus money for home-state pork projects."

Hypocrisy lives.

Ralph