If Republicans are going to target President Barack Obama for not knowing more about the Internal Revenue Service controversy, says House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, consider this:

"Well," she told a news conference Thursday, "The president doesn't know about everything that is going on in every agency of government.  Should Mr. Boehner have known because this is his neighboring district, and since -- Cincinnati, where the IRS office is?

"I don't think you can hold him accountable for what happened in that IRS office."

Asked if Democrats will be hurt politically, Pelosi, D-Calif, noted, "It happened under the appointment of the head of the IRS, who was appointed by President Bush; his length of stay extended into President Obama's stay." She referred to former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.

"But," she said, "I think that that points to the fact that why is this, you know, a politicized issue because the -- we all are concerned about how the IRS does what it's supposed to do, supports the law but does not do it in a selective way.  I've said before what they did was wrong.  The inspector general has said over and over it is not illegal."

Friends and colleagues of Gabriel Zimmerman, the first congressional staffer to die in the line of duty, will gather at the Capitol Tuesday at 3 p.m. to honor his memory.

Zimmerman, then an aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was killed when a gunman opened fire in a Tucson shopping center in January, 2011. Giffords was seriously wounded.

She plans to be on hand Tuesday for the event, along with her husband Mark Kelly, and Zimmerman's friends and family. Also expected to attend are House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

They will dedicate froom HVC-215 at the Capitol Visitor Center as the "Gabriel Zimmerman Meeting Room."

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has supported same-sex marriage for years, and after Wednesday's Supreme Court hearing, reflected on what it was like to back the idea.

"So over the years, one of the questions that I would get asked, especially when I became...part of the leadership, when I first became whip and then after that -- one of the first questions, shall we say, less-than-friendly journalists would ask me on a show or so would be:  Do you support gay marriage?" she recalled.

"And of course I would always say, I support gay marriage; I don't believe in discrimination of any kind."

So, Pelosi told a Capitol news conference, "That'd be like:  We have labeled you.  Now that our audience knows that about you -- you know.  As if it were -- and it was a badge of honor for me.  So now -- it's a badge of honor for a lot of people, but for a long time it was something that we knew was inevitable."

It's the hottest ticket in town: a seat at the U.S. Supreme Court as it hears arguments this week over the constitutionality of banning gay marriage.

Just how hot? House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent out a press release, announcing her "guests" for the court's arguments. On Tuesday, as the court heard the pitches pro and con on California’s Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, the San Francisco Democrat's guests were California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, California State Sen. Mark Leno and Ambassador Jim Hormel of San Francisco.

On Wednesday, when the court hears by oral arguments over whether the Defense of Marriage Act improperly denies federal benefits to same-sex couples who are married under state law, in a case called United States v. Windsor, her guests include Karen Golinski and Amy Cunninghis of San Francisco, plaintiffs in Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management.

Pelosi will also attend the oral arguments in the Windsor case, her office says.

The NCAA college basketball tournament can be a tough time for Nancy Pelosi.

The House Democratic leader explained Thursday "you know I'm a Hoya fan, so I start with Georgetown...because many of my kids went there, including my husband."

But she represents a San Francisco-based congressional district, grew up in Baltimore, so...give her some time, she asked reporters at her weekly news conference.

"I have to study the brackets because once I asked President Clinton whether he's going to be for Arkansas or Georgetown; he said, well, I'm going to be with Arkansas. They really have a chance to win this year," she recalled.

"So I've got to take a look and see where everybody stands. But, you know, as it is, I have a lot of allegiances to many of those schools, and I just want -- well, I don't even want anybody to lose. I'm just rooting for everybody, especially the players."

The politician in her was taking over. "I want them all to succeed, whatever team they're on.  I'm crazy -- I'm March mad. I'm addicted to basketball -- I mean, all sports, but college basketball, very exciting," Pelosi said.

The bipartisan delegation will include Republican Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Georgetown University president John J. DeGioia.

President Barack Obama invited House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to join the delegation  but he declined.

"Unfortunately, my duties in the House next week - including hosting President Obama and the Prime Minister of Ireland at the Capitol on Tuesday, and the debate on the budget - make that impossible," Boehner said in a statement.

Boehner will send his own bipartisan congressional delegation to the Vatican next week to represent the United States at the investiture of new Pope Francis I in Rome. The group includes Reps. Chris Smith, R-NJ, Rose DeLauro, D-Conn., Sean Duffy, R-Wisc., Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, Jim Langevin, D-Rhode Island, Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill. and Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif.

Boehner's office announced that the delegation will fly to Rome on commercial flights in compliance with the speaker’s new rule that use of military air transportation be halted following the across-the-board cuts that went into effect March 1. 

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi was pretty excited about Pope Francis.

In her own words, at her weekly press conference, here's what she said--and watch how she quickly pivots back to politics:

"It's pretty exciting that we have a pope -- "habemus papam."  We're so -- as a San Franciscan, I'm particularly happy at the name that the pope has chosen, Francis.  Yesterday I wasn't sure whether the name was for St. Francis of Assisi or -- which is -- who is the patron saint of San Francisco or for St. Francis Xavier.  St. Francis of Assisi cared for all of God's creation.  St. Francis Xavier did too, and he promulgated the faith in Asia and Jesuit priests.

"Today it appears that St. Francis of Assisi is the namesake of our -- of our new pope.  Pretty exciting.

"Well, as one who has the -- in our city, "The Song of St. Francis" is our anthem, where -- the instruments of God's peace; where there is darkness, may we bring light; despair, may we bring hope; hatred, may we bring love, to forgive so that we can be forgiven.  And so it's pretty exciting, pretty thrilling to have Francis -- I guess they don't say "the first," not until they have a second.  One of    these days.  But anyway, it's pretty -- it's very exciting.  I'm just so thrilled.

"You know, you're always looking for signs.  But when the bird was on the -- did you see this, that there was a bird -- a seagull on the chimney for, like, 40 minutes before the white smoke came -- not immediate -- you know, he flew -- the bird flew away, and then later the white smoke came.  But since St. Francis has always been surrounded by birds, we're reading a great deal into the symbolism of that.

Congressional leaders have arrived at the White House for an Oval Office meeting with President Obama and vice president Joe Biden aimed at discussing -- though probably not averting -- $85 billion in budget cuts that are poised to take effect if lawmakers don't reach an 11th hour agreement.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi arrived via black SUVs; Biden arrived via motorcade. A White House official said the meeting officially kicked off at 10:18 a.m.

An agreement seems increasingly unlikely, though Obama said Thursday after two partisan attempts at avoidance failed Thursday that he'd "bring together leaders from both parties to discuss a path forward."

Without an agreement, Obama at some point today will be required to "order" the Office of Management and Budget to cut the cuts started.

Congress may be out this week, but House of Representatives Democrats want it in. So its Steering and Policy Committee will conduct a hearing Thursday on the impact of the automatic spending cuts due to take effect March 1.

The Democratic hearing will feature Reps. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

Witnesses will include Megan M. Allen, Teacher, Shaw Elementary School in Tampa, Fla., and the 2010 Florida Teacher of the Year; Marion Blakey, President and CEO, Aerospace Industries Association;  Stephen S. Fuller, Professor of Public Policy, George Mason University and Mary C. Selecky, Secretary, Washington State Department of Health.

Among Republicans, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, write an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal outlining his position.

Among his views:

"The president's sequester is the wrong way to reduce the deficit, but it is here to stay until Washington Democrats get serious about cutting spending. The government simply cannot keep delaying the inevitable and spending money it doesn't have.

"So, as the president's outrage about the sequester grows in coming days, Republicans have a simple response: Mr. President, we agree that your sequester is bad policy. What spending are you willing to cut to replace it?"

Republicans weren't keen on birds when they ran the White House, according to Nancy Pelosi.

The House Democratic leader Friday took note of current Republican complaints that Democrats want to spend too much.

"So curious," the California Democrat told a news conference, "that in the eight years of the Bush administration, while the bulk of this deficit was being amassed, you didn't hear them say, boo, who, woo, any deficit hawk bird sound you can come up with."

Nope, she recalled, "It was an endangered species, the deficit hawk.