A May 24 Washington Post article by staff writers John Solomon and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum, headlined “In the Democratic Congress, Pork Still Gets Served,” reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “requested $25 million for a project to improve the waterfront in her home district of San Francisco,” but her “request did not note that her family owns interests in four buildings near the proposed Pier 35 project,” suggesting that Pelosi violated the requirements of a “key Democratic reform” noted in the report. The article quoted a Pelosi spokesman saying that “any suggestion of a conflict of interest is 'ridiculous' ” and that “Pelosi was passing along a spending request from the Port of San Francisco and that she would not benefit from it.” But Solomon and Birnbaum gave no indication that they attempted to contact officials from the Port of San Francisco to confirm the spokesman's claim. As Media Matters for America noted, blogger Greg Sargent reported May 8 that Port of San Francisco officials told him in a phone interview that they requested the waterfront improvement spending.

From Sargent's post:

But I've just gotten off the phone with the Port of San Francisco. Guess what? Its representatives told me in no uncertain terms that it requested the improvements, and that Pelosi only included the improvements at their request. Here's what Brad Benson, the special project manager of the Port of San Francisco, said to me:

“The port initiated these requests. They came entirely from the city and county of San Francisco. [The requests] were generated at the staff level. The port initiated our request through the city and county of San Francisco. Our requests were funneled through the mayor's office on up to Speaker Pelosi's office...If anyone is claiming that Pelosi initiated these requests in some way, that's completely false.”

Moreover, Sargent's post on the San Francisco waterfront project was highlighted on the Post's website. In a May 10 washingtonpost.com column, Post media critic Howard Kurtz linked to Sargent's blog and noted that Sargent found the allegations against Pelosi to be “hogwash.”

Further, Solomon and Birnbaum wrote that Pelosi's “request did not note that her family owns interests in four buildings near the proposed Pier 35 project.” Solomon and Birnbaum did not explain their definition of “near,” but a May 7 post on the Republican Study Committee's weblog, which first highlighted the Pelosi earmark, noted that four properties owned by Pelosi “and/or her husband” are “all located within 5,400 feet and 9,000 feet” of the waterfront improvement project.

From the May 24 Washington Post article:

Another key Democratic reform requires House members seeking earmarks to certify that neither they nor their spouses have any financial interest in the project.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did just that when she requested $25 million for a project to improve the waterfront in her home district of San Francisco. Her request did not note that her family owns interests in four buildings near the proposed Pier 35 project.

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for Pelosi, said that any suggestion of a conflict of interest is “ridiculous.” He said that Pelosi was passing along a spending request from the Port of San Francisco and that she would not benefit from it.