Quick Fact: Van Susteren allowed Hatch to call reconciliation "abuse of Senate rules," despite his previous use of it

From the February 26 edition of Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van Susteren:

HATCH: The third thing is that he basically is going to go to reconciliation, and I think this was a photo op in order to get them so that they can go to reconciliation, which would be an abuse of the Senate rules like I've never seen before.

VAN SUSTEREN: "Photo op" seems like a nice word for a joke.

Fact: Hatch repeatedly voted to use reconciliation to pass GOP initiatives

Hatch supported reconciliation to pass Bush administration budget resolutions, tax cuts. Hatch was among 51 senators -- all 50 Republicans and Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) -- who voted in favor of a 2001 amendment to the fiscal year 2002 budget resolution that allowed for the consideration of President Bush's 2001 tax cuts -- the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 -- through the reconciliation process. Hatch subsequently voted for the tax cut bill itself.

Further, in 2003, Hatch voted for the Senate version of the fiscal 2004 budget resolution that called for additional tax cuts to be considered under reconciliation and for the final version of the 2004 budget resolution. He also voted against an amendment to the Senate version of the budget resolution, proposed by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), that would have stripped reconciliation instructions from the resolution. In 2005, Hatch voted for the final version of the fiscal 2005 budget resolution, which also called for tax cuts through reconciliation. He subsequently voted for the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 itself.

Fact: Van Susteren has repeatedly misportrayed reconciliation

Van Susteren falsely portrayed reconciliation as "nuclear option." On August 20, 2009, Van Susteren asserted that Democrats are "threatening to go nuclear, literally" in discussing the reconciliation process. Van Susteren later added, "Democrats might use the nuclear option, which is slang for a parliamentary procedure called reconciliation, to get health care reform passed." On January 20, Van Susteren falsely described the budget reconciliation process as the "nuclear option," and allowed Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) to refer to it as "arcane," despite his own record of supporting bills that made use of the procedure. In fact, the "nuclear option" actually refers to a procedure that would be used to change Senate rules, while reconciliation is part of the congressional budget process.

Van Susteren: "[Y]ears ago when it came to Republicans using reconciliation, Democrats were singing a different tune." On her February 24 show, Van Susteren noted that Democrats want to use reconciliation to pass health care and said, "But years ago when it came to Republicans using reconciliation, many Democrats were singing a different tune." In fact, the Democratic senators were expressing opposition to a 2005 proposal to change Senate rules to eliminate use of the filibuster for judicial nominations -- i.e. the "nuclear option" -- not the use of reconciliation.