Speaker Nancy Pelosi made news last week, declaring her opposition to impeaching President Trump. “Impeachment,” she said, “is so divisive … unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan … it’s just not worth it.”
Before discussing why Pelosi made this announcement, at this juncture, let’s take a diversion and consider who broke the story. For mild payback, I’ll tell you it was first reported by liberal outlets. Actually, I know precisely who got it first, but my vague “first reported by liberal outlets” deliberately fuzzes the truth that it was the Washington Post.
My motive? Maybe you read last month that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff runs a $1 million slush fund diverting campaign cash to his own companies. It was Washington Examiner reporter Alana Goodman’s great scoop, but the Post’s copycat story pusillanimously declared it had been “first reported by conservative outlets.” The Post didn’t like acknowledging that a rival published an excellent exclusive that the Post didn’t get a sniff of. I surmise that its editors also think sneering, “first reported by conservative outlets,” drains a story of power by hinting at partisanship, and thus protects AOC. Petty, no? Having taken my retributive shot, I’ll say good scoop by the Post. Can you be honest about acknowledgments from now on?
And so back to Pelosi. She suddenly opposes impeachment because it’s expedient at a moment of political panic. Rep. Adam Schiff, who’s yearned to be Trump’s nemesis, is also backing away from impeachment as the Russia collusion narrative collapses. Pelosi and the Democratic establishment are desperate to resist the hostile takeover of the party, which we reported in January, by their foam-flecked, left-wing colleagues. Pelosi is hurling a bucket of ice water on the revolutionaries to freeze them before they kill the Democrats’ chance of defeating Trump in 2020. As Kyle Orton’s cover story, “The Corbynization of the Democratic Party,” reveals, America’s Left is increasingly steeped in the repugnant prejudices and policy extremism embodied by Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s Labour Party. It’s ripping Labour apart, making it unelectable even against a hapless Conservative Party. The U.S. echoes terrify Pelosi and her coterie as completely as a thunderous cry of “four more years!”
This week sees a British invasion of the Washington Examiner — I promise it is nothing to do with the nationality of its editor-in-chief — for we are also running John O’Sullivan’s brilliant feature about the mess of Brexit. Parliament’s inability, and the British establishment’s apparent unwillingness, to execute voters’ instruction to withdraw from the European Union, is a dark stain on a nation that, as much as any, created modern liberal democracy. Getting out of that protection racket is deeply desirable, and it should be welcomed by Washington, which has always failed to recognize the anti-American nature of the EU.
Last but by no means least, I’m delighted to announce that Fred Barnes, a founding editor of the Weekly Standard, has joined the Washington Examiner as a senior columnist.
