Richard Wolfe: Mitch and Nancy: A tale of two styles

Mitch McConnell is frequently caricatured as a turtle. But he’s not slow. He may walk slowly, but the man is 80 years old, and one leg was ravaged by polio when he was just 2.

He is, inarguably, one the savviest political operatives of the past century. He has developed a rhinoceros hide and a ruthlessness and shamelessness that are truly awe-inspiring. Cringe if you will, but you have to at least grudgingly respect competence even if you detest those who wield it.

McConnell’s nicknames of the Grim Reaper (which he gleefully acknowledges) and Darth Vader are not hyperbolic. With exception of tax cuts for the wealthy, he kills everything that comes into view.

He does not at all, however, like the moniker Moscow Mitch. He earned that one by killing a House-passed measure that sought to fortify state election systems and require paper ballots for added security. This in the wake of various revelations into Russian interference in the U.S. 2016 election.

The SCOTUS debacles are stellar examples of McConnell’s willingness to put party, nay, ideology, over country. Three sitting justices are the beneficiaries of his largesse. Only Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination was conducted through a process even approaching proper. Credible allegations of sexual assault notwithstanding, Kavanaugh's hearings were not the result of McConnell defecating all over the norms of vetting a presidential nominee.

Pre-Kavanaugh, McConnell denied Merrick Garland — nobody’s idea of a liberal, activist firebrand — the dignity of a judiciary committee hearing, let alone a Senate floor vote. Garland was nominated in March 2016, 10 months before President Barack Obama was to be term-limited out of the White House. Calling it a "lame duck" appointment, McConnell cynically rolled the dice on a Republican ascending to the White House.

Then he rammed Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation through eight days before the November 2020 election. All of one month after RBG lay in state in the Capitol.

McConnell once again demonstrating his dark prowess. Once again proving his disdain for any oath he may have taken.

Nancy Pelosi, too, can play the Capitol games with a deft hand, but there’s no evidence that she’s sold her soul. Indeed, some of her procedural tactics can be viewed as brutal, but D.C. politics are not, as the old saw goes, just puppies and pancakes. Leadership on Capitol Hill requires experience, shrewdness and fortitude. Pelosi has all of these in spades.

To the dismay of her opposition, Nancy all too often establishes herself as the smartest person in the room. [Listen closely now to the MAGA heads exploding.] Here’s how she moved things forward without throwing acid in the face of time-honored congressional practice:

On Feb. 15, 2021, Pelosi proposed a National Commission to Investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol Complex. A key provision was 10 committee members, with an equal number from each party, as selected by party leadership. Thirty-five House Republicans supported it. McConnell’s filibuster killed it.

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Four months later, on June 30, 2021, the House impaneled its own Select Committee, comprised of nine members. Only two Republicans, Liz Cheney (vice chair) and Adam Kinzinger serve on it. Why only two? Because Nancy Pelosi would not afford House Republicans the chance to sabotage the investigation. Which was the objective of the appointees "recommended" by box-of-rocks liar Kevin McCarthy.

Imagine the disruption, rancor, and dearth of information that would have emanated from the Jan. 6 Select Committee had she permitted the seating of, for example, Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana, Jim Jordan of Ohio and freshman Troy Nehls of Texas. They all voted to challenge the 2020 presidential-election results in battleground states.

Jordan is a particular case. There are emails and his own words that show him to be knees deep in the Jan. 6 outrage. Think his motivation is transparency? Hardly.

This House Committee is credible and muscular, and Mitch can’t kill this one off. Current AG Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice is cataloguing witness testimony and is set to obtain all committee transcripts. Indictments are surely just around the corner.

This time, Nancy Pelosi did far more than just tear a ridiculous speech in two.

She enabled justice.

— Community Columnist Richard Wolfe is a resident of Park Township. Contact him at wolf86681346@gmail.com. 

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Richard Wolfe: Mitch and Nancy: A tale of two styles