Pelosi barks

Nancy Pelosi is Exhibit A in Kim Strassel’s Wall Street Journal Potomac Watch column “Pols Face a Coronavirus Test.” Subhead: “Who’s leading and who’s seeking political advantage? Here are the answers.” Pelosi is the leading example of what not to do:

Crises have a way of separating the leaderlike wheat from the opportunistic chaff. Coronavirus is the crisis of our time, and the political winnowing is something to behold.

Example: The Trump administration spent this week distributing ventilators, standing up small-business loans, dispatching hospital ships, erecting alternate care facilities, explaining virus modeling, revamping regulations to keep truckers on the road, and plastering the airwaves with information about hygiene and social distancing. Speaker Nancy Pelosi spent this week setting up a new House committee to investigate Donald Trump.

After citing Governors Cuomo and Newsom as counterexamples, Strassel returns to Pelosi:

Contrast this with Mrs. Pelosi, who seems to view the pandemic as one big political opportunity. She held up last week’s relief bill for days, attempting to cram into it unrelated election and climate provisions. She used a Sunday CNN appearance to accuse Mr. Trump of killing Americans. This week she announced a new special House committee that will “examine all aspects of the federal response to the coronavirus” and will have subpoena power. This is yet the latest Democratic machinery for investigating Trump and ginning up scandals.

“The little dogs and all,” King Lear complains as he struggles to hold it together in Shakespeare’s great play. “Tray, Blanch, and Sweet-heart, see, they bark at me.” Lear seems to be seeing things, but Pelosi is unfortunately for real. The little dogs bark but the caravan moves on.

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