Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the target of the latest right-wing slander du jour. In an interview with CNN's Candy Crowley, Pelosi blamed Hamas for initiating the current war in Gaza and reiterated U.S. support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. As to why Hamas sponsor Qatar was included in truce negotiations, the number one House Democrat explained "we have to confer with the Qataris, who have told me over and over again that Hamas is a humanitarian organization, maybe they could use their influence" to help bring their clients to heel. But from that obvious summary of the Qataris' talking point, the conservative commentariat produced its own:

Nancy Pelosi seemed to suggest over the weekend that Hamas, which we recognize as a terrorist group, is actually out to do good...It is stunning! It's not like some crazy fringe group here in America says Hamas is a terrorist organization. The State Department! And she's out there saying that they're a humanitarian group.

Of course, Nancy Pelosi isn't saying Hamas is a humanitarian group. But back in 2007, another major American political figure--future Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney--didn't just praise the humanitarian work of both Hamas and Hezbollah. Governor Romney said the two terror groups could provide a model for U.S. diplomacy throughout the Middle East.

On April 10, 2007, Mitt Romney gave an address at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library titled, "Rising To A New Generation of Global Challenges." As he put it his prepared remarks:

When facing the need to strengthen the democratic underpinnings of a country like Lebanon, our education, health, banking, energy, commerce, law enforcement and diplomatic resources are in separate bureaucracies, all under separate leadership, all protecting their own powers and their own prerogatives. So while we watched, Hezbollah brought healthcare and schools to the Lebanese. Guess who the people followed when conflict ensued? The same thing happened with Hamas and the Palestinians.

During a July 29, 2007 event, Romney made almost the exact same point. There, as ABC News reported, "Romney: U.S. Can Learn from Hezbollah":

"Did you notice in Lebanon what Hezbollah did?" Romney asked Friday during a town-hall meeting in Iowa. "Lebanon became a democracy some time ago. And while their government was getting underway, Hezbollah went into southern Lebanon and provided health clinics to some of the people there and schools, and they built their support by having done so. That kind of diplomacy is something that would help America become stronger around the world and help people understand that our interest is an interest toward modernity and goodness and freedom for all people of the world."

Drawing criticism from its own party, Team Romney put out a "Fact Sheet" cataloguing all the times Mitt branded Hezbollah a terrorist organization. (Kathyrn Jean Lopez of the National Review faithfully reproduced it in full.) Of course, Romney could have also simply repeated his warning which conflated all Muslims into a single, undifferentiated jihadist threat to the United States:

"But I don't want to buy into the Democratic pitch, that this is all about one person, Osama bin Laden. Because after we get him, there's going to be another and another. This is about Shia and Sunni. This is about Hezbollah and Hamas and al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood. This is the worldwide jihadist effort to try and cause the collapse of all moderate Islamic governments and replace them with a caliphate."

As for Nancy Pelosi, she did not, as Megan Kelly of Fox News insisted, base "her characterizations of Hamas on what the Qataris are telling her." Then again, it could have been worse. Pelosi could have quoted Mitt Romney.