Republican media outrage: Nancy Pelosi left DC ... for a funeral

The Republican media's SCANDAL of the day? Nancy Pelosi left Washington, DC, to go back to California for the weekend on Thursday afternoon. How dare she! I mean, really, what could possibly justify what I have to assume, based on the Republican outrage, is Pelosi going for a frivolous weekend at a spa without means of communication. That's got to be it, right? Right?

"She went home for a funeral of a friend who passed away this week," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill confirms. "Services are this morning."

Pelosi's office would not reveal which friend of Pelosi's had passed away, and criticized this reporter as being in "poor taste to ask about what funeral she is attending."

Not to worry, Hammill insists, Pelosi will still be able to help work out the "fiscal cliff" negotiations. "Just as Speaker Boehner's spokesman has pointed out with respect to Ohio, California has many airports and cell phone service," writes Hammill in an email.

Oh. Hmm. Well, how dare she ... go back to California for the funeral of a friend, on a weekend when John Boehner has also left Washington?
so did boehner. he's in ohio. RT @DRUDGE_REPORT: PELOSI SKIPS TOWN AMID 'CLIFF' TALKS http://t.co/...
' @JakeSherman via TweetDeck According to the Weekly Standard, though, an unnamed source claims to have overheard Pelosi saying she was leaving to go to a birthday party, not a funeral. If that's the level of speculation we're going with, it would be irresponsible not to wonder if Boehner is headed back to Ohio for his weekend drinking binge. (Although, to be fair to Boehner, all the indications are that he doesn't need to be in Ohio to be drinking.)

Still, Pelosi, so irresponsible to be leaving when she's the only Democrat ... oh, wait ...

Nancy Pelosi isn't staying in DC for deal talks, but I heard there's a higher ranking Democrat around who's handling things.
' @KagroX via TweetDeck So Kagro has a point there. Which means, maybe, possibly, could it be that the Republican media is pushing this stupid distraction because their party's fiscal cliff curb position is so unpopular with the public and Boehner doesn't have the support of his caucus for the plan he doesn't even really have? Huh. Maybe that's it.