Rats! Nancy Pelosi's Mouse Just Another GOP Tall Tail

When I saw the headlines about "Nancy Pelosi's mouse" I immediately assumed the worst: Richard Gere's gerbil, part 2.

But no, turns out it's an allegation that the stimulus bill contains $30 million for saving salt marsh mice in Pelosi's California district. By which I mean, no, it's a fanciful fable from the magic kingdom of Republican spin…

How did this one get going? Yesterday a House Republican leadership staffer circulated a background email, which I [Plum Line's Greg Sargent] obtained, charging that GOP staffers had been told by an unnamed Federal agency that if it got money from the stim package, it would spend "thirty million dollars for wetland restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area — including work to protect the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse."

The GOP staffer’s email didn’t say what agency it was. It didn’t say the money was actually in the package — just that an unnamed agency had said they would spend it on that if they got it.

So this is what the Republicans have left, a hypothetical fight against imaginary spending.

Hey, GOP, I just spent $400 million on mani/pedis for unwed mothers… in my mind.