Rachel Maddow, Nancy Pelosi Discuss Contraception And Rick Santorum (VIDEO)

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat down with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in an interview that was aired Wednesday night. Maddow asked Pelosi about a range of topics including the Republican Party's recent hearing on contraception and GOP candidate Rick Santorum.

Maddow replayed a clip of what she called Pelosi famously using the word, "duh," in response to the Republican hearing on contraception including an all-male panel. "Imagine they're having a panel on women's health and they don't have any women on the panel — duh," Pelosi said.

Maddow asked, "Obviously there's a political difference of opinion about what policy ought to be on this subject, but do you actually think there is a difference in understanding? What would you explain to them if they would listen?"

"First of all," Pelosi said, "the idea that they would be taking about contraception in this way is a real breakthrough for those of us — I've been in Congress...for 25 years I've been saying to people, 'This isn't about abortion. They like to say it is, but this is about contraception.'"

Pelosi added, "Contraception is something that is universally practiced. The size and timing of families is a family's important decision to make together with their doctor, with their God. It's not about some five men sitting around the table in Washington D.C...At last the country knows that all this talk about reproductive freedom really extends to something as personal as family planning and birth control, and depriving women of access to contraction."

Maddow then asked Pelosi if she thought GOP candidate Rick Santorum, who has experienced a recent surge in the polls, could possibly become the Republican Party's presidential nominee. When GOP candidate Newt Gingrich surged in the polls and was the Republican Party's frontrunner, Pelosi weighed in and said she knew that he would not be the Republican nominee for president.

As for Santorum, Pelosi did not offer such an opinion. "I'd like to leave the Republican selection of their nominee up to them. I just knew that Newt Gingirch was completely unacceptable," she said.

After the interview, Maddow told viewers that she has noticed a trend in responses to that particular question about Santorum. "I'm not saying this what is motivating Speaker Pelosi in taking that position, but you kind of hear that a lot from Liberals across the country right now about Rick Santorum," Maddow said. She added in a celebratory voice,"Shh, don't interrupt the Republicans, don't make a sound — they're about to nominate Rick Santorum! Don't move a muscle!"

Also on HuffPost:

The candidates' views on women's health:

Comments

[l78lancer]

04:39 AM on 02/27/2012

Ssshhh! Please don't wake the GOP from their sleepwalking.

[Caymus77]

11:53 PM on 02/26/2012

Pelosi is right on target:These Religious Pro-Lifers are opposed to contraception.

What the Religious Right seek is to jam their religion down everybody's throat.

[oftenon]

07:02 PM on 02/26/2012

nowhere better to glean the absurdity of men politicizing women's private parts than these two.

[Janzee12000]

06:08 PM on 02/26/2012

Santorum can say all he wants, be outlandish all he wants, take all the delegates he wants... but, get the nomination? No way... If it has to be decided at the convention (probably will), the big donors will make that selection and it won't be him..

[chaucer1]

09:53 AM on 02/26/2012

Rachel is intellectually on-target, but why is her voice starting to bother me so much? It seems to get higher and higher as the program goes along.

[margoharris]

02:51 PM on 02/26/2012

What are you talking about? It must be just you.

[Greenchilistew]

03:32 AM on 02/26/2012

If the GOP is daft enough to nominate Santorum, it will split the party permanently. There are MANY in the GOP would sooner vote for President Obama that Santorum's socially regressive dystopia. At the very least, a HUGE percentage of the GOP will not vote for Santorum - either they go for President Obama or they simply stay home. There MIGHT be a majority of the GOP that favors the anti contraception/anti abortion culture war being waged right now, but there are many who recognize it as suicidal politically and unconstitutional. With the GOP being the smaller party, they cannot afford to drive away their own voters. Such a course would also not attract independents or Dems. Thus, it is an absolutely un-winnable strategy.

The GOP seems bent on self immolation.

Anybody got a match?

[Me atlast]

03:40 PM on 02/26/2012

Did you see the article where he said he wanted to throw up when he read Kennedy's speach that referenced separation of church and state?

That one comment by itself ought to do him in.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

05:42 PM on 02/26/2012

For sane Americans, yes, but what troubles me is that the general electorate is capable of consistently choosing the unstable. Just look at some of the notable Republicans from South Carolina or Texas, for example. The fact that Santorum's campaign is catching fire is unsettling. As the old saying goes, "Be careful of what we wish ; we just might get it."

[rww549]

08:57 PM on 02/26/2012

Get the marshmallows.

[Carolyn LeBeauf]

10:36 PM on 02/25/2012

I love how Rachel got all those pathetic fools afraid of her. Continue to expose all those hypocrits DR. MADDOW.

[Greenchilistew]

03:33 AM on 02/26/2012

The reason they fear her is she has brains. They know not of brains. They fear that with which they are unfamiliar.

[Gigi Jacobs]

07:05 AM on 02/26/2012

Actually you don't know how correct you are. fMRI studies are showing there's a difference between the liberal and conservative brain structure. Conservatives have a brain structure appropriate for thousands of years ago when living in caves individually and they were scared of those different from them. They still have this flaw as they are afraid of all different-immigrants, gays, facts, science, and because they don't use their anterior cingulate cortex very much, reasoning and facts are not something understood nor very important to them. These studies are all over the world. Just google and you'll be able to read them for yourself. It's pretty scary but so true.

[UnRed]

07:56 PM on 02/25/2012

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." - Napoleon Bonaparte

[taquinas]

10:55 PM on 02/25/2012

Ms. Pelosi has her fingers crossed. Pretty obvious but she's the epitome of 'Sweet old lady'.

[cpsummer2457]

07:08 PM on 02/25/2012

Santorum has alienated just about every woman in America and a lot of the cultures, including his own religion, so chance of him being the nominee is very slim at best; I mean the man even went after Girl Scouts that’s really hitting an all time low.

[Elvira Andretti]

06:39 PM on 02/25/2012

R E M E M B E R on election day. TRANS VAGINAL ULTRASOUND, TRANS VAGINAL ULTRASOUND, TRANS VAGINAL ULTRASOUND

[apiazza]

10:58 AM on 02/26/2012

Hey Beavis...she said Trans Vaginal.

[Bardoo]

04:06 PM on 02/25/2012

I've been banned from saying birth control is a personal matter.

[Greenchilistew]

03:34 AM on 02/26/2012

No you haven't.

[vietveter]

12:56 PM on 02/25/2012

Why go men even THINK that this is any of

their business?

It is between a woman and whomever she decides

to tell about it. No one else. Certainly no law

should decide for her.

[yweston]

05:09 AM on 02/26/2012

The true question is why do "Republican men think this is any of their business".

[Gigi Jacobs]

05:19 AM on 02/26/2012

Some of the literal strict born again religions think men not only should be directing this, but that their woman is to behave as their husbands dictate them to do. A woman's place is in the home, taking the children out of public school so they can teach them that gays are evil and many others are too. My sister is in this cult and her children are "sheltered" from evil in their house. I know she is teaching them nothing but that one book as my sister barely passed any classes herself, much less capable of teaching anyone anything. It's frightening but I'm glad it's reached this height of awareness for all to see. If you think this is bad, you ain't seen nothing yet!

[957]

06:34 AM on 02/25/2012

Maddows part of the 1% like Matthews and Mahr and liberals lap up every word.

[Mydian01]

05:15 PM on 02/25/2012

Maddow, Matthews and Maher don't actively lobby for more tax cuts to rig the game even further, like O'Reilly, Beck and Limbaugh.

[Gigi Jacobs]

07:11 AM on 02/26/2012

Poster 957 thinks that 1% stands for an income group and not a behavior. I doubt you'll be able to convince him of anything. Conservatives do not like facts and that has to do with brain structure. There are a lot of recent new studies showing there are different brain structures for conservatives and they use the amygdala which is a structure associated with fear and not for rational thinking. Ergo the lack of need for facts.

[YellowDogOkie]

09:04 PM on 02/25/2012

You know this....how?

[mamacat]

05:37 AM on 02/25/2012

What happened in Wisconsin with Scott Walker will seem like a walk in the park, compared to what will happen if any Republican gets elected President.

[jstjoe]

04:16 AM on 02/26/2012

The occupant of the oval office will have no bearing on this debate. The game has already been rigged at the Supreme Court level and the test cases are on their way. America , and particularly women in America, has a chilling realization coming with this years session of the high court. The final blow that the Bush administration delivered to this country will become readily apparent.

[nothingchanges]

12:26 AM on 02/25/2012

The sad fact is that the Republicans are still being allowed to control the topics of what is debated in the public eye.

The Republicans won a majority in the House in 2010 with the promise of JOBS.....JOBS.... JOBS.

So where are the JOBS programs?

And why are they not being held accountable for the lack thereof?

For that matter why is nothing being done by Congress to address the Supreme Court's Citizens United Decision?

Seems to me........ that single court case could be the determining factor of our times.

I suspect it would be a great deal easier to PREVENT our nation becoming a fascist state, then it will be to get our democracy back, AFTER that goal has become a "fait accompli".

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." -Benito Mussolini-

"Corporations are people, my friends"...........with tons of money, devoid of a human soul, and facing no possibility of imprisonment for wrongdoing.

Not a pretty picture.