Nancy Pelosi issued a statement this morning on the soon-to-be-formed House Select Committee to investigate Benghazi. Byron York comments:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is complaining that the new select committee on Benghazi will have more Republican members than Democrats. “If this review is to be fair, it must be truly bipartisan,” Pelosi said in a just-released statement. “The panel should be equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, as is done on the House Ethics Committee.”
Is that a reasonable request? Not if precedent is a guide:
In 2007, the House created a Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. As Speaker, Pelosi set up the structure. There were nine Democrats and six Republicans.
As Byron notes, Pelosi seems to imply that the Democrats will participate in the committee, whereas some Democratic Congressmen have urged a boycott. It may be that Pelosi is deliberately making unreasonable demands, so that when she doesn’t get her way, the Democrats can use John Boehner’s refusal to give their party equal representation, contrary to normal House practices, as an excuse for a boycott.
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