Well, that didn’t take long. Yesterday, Nancy Pelosi issued an edict (to an apparently willing Capitol Police department) to arrest people in the Capitol Building not wearing masks. As I wrote, it was not only a ridiculous order that ignored the science, but it was also insidious that a police force would seemingly agree to enforce it (see Nancy Pelosi Orders the Arrest of Those Without Masks and the Capitol Police Play Along).

So who will be the first person drug away in handcuffs? If Nancy Pelosi has any consistency, the answer is herself. We know that’s not going to happen, though.

Nancy Pelosi takes off mask, breaking her own mandate, for a photo. pic.twitter.com/dxGIs4zHtT

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) July 30, 2021

Only one of the following two statements can be true. Either the moment you go to take a picture, the virus becomes non-communicable, making it safe to remove one’s mask, or alternatively, this is all silly theater, masks don’t work, and Pelosi’s breaking of her own protocol, which she’s enforcing via arrest, is nonsensical on its face. Yeah, I’m gonna go with the second option.

Pelosi re-instituting a mask mandate in a building where almost everyone is vaccinated, inside of a city that has had three times as many people die of homicide vs. COVID in the last two weeks was nothing but a partisan, political move. Yes, virtue-signaling was part of it because that’s always part of it for the left, but the move was also to force Republicans into a contentious situation where, if they defied her, they’d be accused of spreading the virus and harming others. Never mind that it’s Texas Democrats that seemingly caused the latest outbreak in the White House and among some Congressional staffers. Any future infections will be blamed on Republicans who don’t mask despite the lack of correlation between masking and spread.

Poking at Republicans was the goal. I believe that’s probably a miscalculation, though. While those deeply ingrained in the beltway will laud Pelosi’s move, I think most Americans will look at it as yet more unwarranted politicization of the pandemic. People are tired of the double-speak and contradictions. They are sick of being told vaccinations mean no masks only to have the rug pulled out from under them simply because politicians are too cowardly to lead and own the consequences of their leadership.

At this point, some staffer needs to take one for the team and make the USCP arrest them over lack of a mask. The juxtaposing of that with Pelosi’s behavior would be well worth the citation issued.