We became increasingly wistful as we read through Democratic Presidential aspirant Joe Biden’s op-ed in Monday’s edition of the New York Times. In the piece, the former two-term vice president laid out his “Plan to Safely Reopen America.”
He is highly critical of the Trump Administration for not providing “a plan to safely reopen America” and proceeds to offer his own. Much of the piece contains obvious ideas, hyperbolic language, and linguistic pap, but at least there is little trace of the transparent scorched-earth approach to political combat evidenced in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement of her plan to appoint a House Select Committee on the coronavirus crisis – complete with subpoena power.
With “over $2 trillion in emergency relief we need to ensure those dollars are spent carefully and effectively,” she said. But who determines what “carefully and effectively” mean? Plainly what Ms. Pelosi is up to is an official format through which she can try– once again – to delegitimize and undermine President Trump.
She has named Rep. Jim Clyburn to chair the committee. He is the same Clyburn who, during a heated battle between congressional Democrats and Republicans over what would be included in the Coronavirus Aid Bill, said it presented a “tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.”
What is that vision? It consists of the usual liberal potpourri. In a bill that was designed specifically to save the economy and help people survive this pandemic, the Democrats wanted to include provisions on employee diversity, increased union representation, environmentalism, and more.
The Democrats were forced to give up most of their provisions once they realized how bad the optics were, but the fight did delay passage of the aid legislation.
We have no doubt that Ms. Pelosi sees her oversight committee as just a continuation of the Democratic Resistance to the Trump presidency, but we really don’t have the luxury right now of more Russiagates and impeachment frolics. Whatever the election prospects of Mr. Biden, we hope that his op-ed – whose tone clearly differs from that used by Ms. Pelosi – indicates that Mr. Biden takes a more responsible view of his political advocacy and will set an example for his fellow Democrats.
Our governmental system was designed to function best with robust political competition with which Mr. Biden’s op-ed is certainly consistent. The Pelosi game plan is not.