Steny Hoyer, talking to reporters, categorically denied that he ever suggested an increase in age eligibility for federal benefits. But there is documented evidence to the contrary.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi went sharply after oil speculation late yesterday, taking up a strategy to answer Republicans on rising gas prices that has not been employed much in the political sphere.

After the all-male panel on birth control in the House Oversight Committee last week (wait, I’m supposed to be fair and say that the SECOND panel of the day had a couple women on it), plenty of people joked on Twitter about an all-female panel on Viagra. House Democrats aren’t doing that, but they are giving their star witness from the Oversight Committee panel, the one Darrell Issa didn’t allow to testify, a chance to speak.

More reactions from last week’s revelation from San Francisco Recorder-Assessor Phil Ting, that an overwhelming percentage of foreclosure documents he reviewed were found to be at least partially flawed. The two members of Congress who represent San Francisco want Attorney General Eric Holder to convene an investigation. That consists of Jackie Speier and the Minority Leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi.

That all-male hearing on birth control access over at the House Oversight Committee provoked Democratic women on the committee to walk out of the hearing room.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi released a statement that probably secures passage for a standalone, unfunded payroll tax cut. Meanwhile, the Senate in negotiating changes to unemployment insurance that may shorten it from 99 to 79 weeks or less or impose other restrictions.

When the Senate passed the STOCK Act, the bill that bans insider trading on non-public information picked up in Congress (yes, that’s not against the law right now) along with some other ethics reforms, I thought that could be a vehicle that would move expeditiously through the House. However, even though Majority Leader Eric Cantor made promises that the STOCK Act would get a vote this week, instead what has happened is a free-for-all, with lobbyists gutting the bill at Cantor’s behest.

Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats pulled off a neat little trick yesterday. The two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance really only allows for one month of negotiation in the conference committee, since Congress stands in recess until the end of January. But there’s no reason that the conference committee cannot begin its work beforehand. So Pelosi stood in Washington yesterday, with House Democratic conferees, and demanded to know why Republicans wouldn’t come back to Washington to finish the deal.

Bradford Wells and Anthony John Makk, whose story was first featured at Firedoglake here, have got a reprieve from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, organized and announced by their Congressional representative, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

This is the key point from Nancy Pelosi, that Democratic votes will be needed to pass anything, which gives her a voice in the process. A meeting last night in the House GOP caucus showed clearly that there is a major rift between the rank and file and the House leadership on the issue. Lots of Republicans just don’t want to do the tax cut at all. That gives Pelosi an opportunity.