Luke Russert: Gohmert's golf ban on Obama 'reveals a pettiness on both sides'

NBC News correspondent Luke Russert on Wednesday asserted that "it's actually really true" that a Republican attempt to stop President Barack Obama from playing golf "looks bad on both sides."

Earlier this week, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) had proposed an amendment to ban the president from playing golf until he resumed tours at the White House that had been canceled to prevent Secret Service furloughs due to automatic budget cuts in the so-called sequester.

"Doesn't this reveal the petty and personal nature of Republican opposition to this president?" MSNBC host Martin Bashir asked Russert on Wednesday.

"Well, I think it reveals a sort of pettiness on both sides," Russert opined.

"How is it petty by the president to apply the sequester since it's something that he didn't want but it's been imposed?" Bashir pressed.

"Because the idea, Martin, is by putting that forward that there would be no more tours of the White House, who does that stick it to? That really sticks it to rank-and-file congressmen, who ordinarily would promise those types of tours to their constituents," Russert insisted.

"It sticks it to the public!" Bashir shot back. "And it's the public who are being injured by the sequester."

"The public gets those tours through their congressman," Russert continued. "If you look at it from the abstract, if you're sitting in the middle of America tuning in at night, you're saying, 'Why are they fighting about who can tour the White House. We can tour the Capitol.'"

"It looks bad on both sides. I think it's a pox on both their houses, which is a thing that we're never supposed to say these days because it's an easy way to get out for the media. But in this case, it's actually really true."

Watch this video from MSNBC, broadcast March 6, 2013.