Last year Speaker Pelosi routinely said that the Tea Party movement was nothing more than an astroturf campaign led by the richest in America. Now Speaker Pelosi claims that she shares some of the same values of the Tea Party, particularly on special interests.

VARGAS: Let’s talk a bit about the coming elections in November. You had recently– and the Tea Party movement, do you think it will be a force to be reckoned with? You had said last summer that it was a faux grassroots movement. You called it the Astroturf movement.

PELOSI: In some respects it is. Uh-huh.

VARGAS: Is the Tea Party movement a force?

PELOSI: No – No what I said at the time is, that they were — the Republican Party directs a lot of what the Tea Party does, but not everybody in the Tea Party takes direction from the Republican Party. And so there was a lot of, shall we say, Astroturf, as opposed to grassroots.

But, you know, we share some of the views of the Tea Partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C., as — it just has to stop. And that’s why I’ve fought the special interest, whether it’s on energy, whether it’s on health insurance, whether it’s on pharmaceuticals and the rest.

In case you were wondering, this is what fighting special interests looks like:

Last year saw a more than 5 percent increase in lobbying expenditures as compared to 2008, said a new report released Friday by the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog.

More than $3.47 billion was spent on lobbying in 2009, about $170 million more than in 2008, according to the watchdog’s analysis.

“Lobbying appears recession-proof,” said Sheila Krumholz, the center’s executive director, in a statement. “Even when companies are scaling back other operations, many view lobbying as a critical tool in protecting their future interests, particularly when Congress is preparing to take action on issues that could seriously affect their bottom lines.”

Lobbyists have said business for them managed to remain upbeat throughout 2009 despite the poor economy because of the Obama administration’s aggressive legislative agenda.

So under Speaker Pelosi’s leadership in Congress lobbyists had a record year at the same time she was fighting special interests? Interestingly, this isn’t the dumbest thing Speaker Pelosi has said today.

(thanks to The Right Scoop for the video; h/t Hot Air)

Tags: Pelosi, Tea Party