House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:
1) Is she really that dumb?
B) Does she think we really are that dumb?
III) Both?
Nancy Pelosi decided that it was time to offer us her wisdom on the Ground Zero Mosque. Specifically, she called for an investigation into the financing of the mosque.
Whoops, my bad. No, she wanted an investigation into the financing of the mosque’s opponents.
It didn’t take very long for her keepers aides to get her to issue a clarification: she didn’t mean a government investigation, and gee, wouldn’t it be nice if they looked at the mosque’s funding too?
Which brings us to the opening question.
Nancy Pelosi is the quintessential Big Government liberal, the leader of the House of Representatives, second in line for the presidency, and arguably the third most powerful person in the government. When she speaks about wanting an investigation into something, it can safely be presumed that she is talking about a government investigation — whenever else she speaks about something that needs to be done, she’s meaning that the government needs to do it. That is her default position.
Further, it’s a wonderful insight into her mentality. I don’t recall her ever taking a stand on anything based on principle — with her, it’s always politics. So it’s a safe presumption that her position here is based on politics as well. And as there isn’t much to be gained politically from supporting the mosque, I’d wager she’s playing a game I use every now and then — taking a side purely because “it pisses off the right people.” Her traditional opponents are speaking out against the mosque, so she has to take the opposite side.
Finally, the mode of her attack also shows the way she thinks. She sees her opponents through her own biases, her own experiences. And on her side, most of the political power comes from the top down. They rely most on groups to provide the organization and money and contacts and ideas down to the little people. The notion that things could happen in the other direction — that the little people could set the agenda themselves, organize themselves, and in general wield power without the bigwigs telling them what to do and think. It’s the “Tea Party” effect.
And that simply doesn’t compute for Pelosi and her ilk. They don’t know how to deal with that model. So they have to find ways to force their enemies to fit their little cookie-cutter molds. They’re like modern-day Procrustes.
And if there’s any justice, it will end similarly.
