Among the many questionable practices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been her staunch and persistent defense of members of Congress trading in the stock market, given their potential to pass or otherwise affect legislation that might also impact the companies in which they buy and or hold stock.

While Detroit Lions offensive tackle Tyrell Crosby makes a living defending his quarterback, he has now caused a bit of stir by questioning why members of Congress are allowed to trade stock when they can influence financial policy.

Crosby first raised the question in a late January tweet.

If as an NFL player we aren’t allowed to bet on games(which I fully agree with), why are government officials allowed to buy stocks/stock options?

Lions OL Tyrell Crosby has a question 👀 🤷🏾‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/ZhaCRHKZkU

— Bobby Legends (@bwest0772) January 23, 2022

Excellent question. Nancy Pelosi was unavailable for comment.

The star defensive player continued his very basic — and very valid — argument on Wednesday’s “Just the News” TV show with host John Solomon, saying it just hit him, one day.

I was just in bed having random thoughts, [after seeing an ad for sports betting, and] it just hit me. As an NFL player, I’m not allowed to bet on any NFL games. I can’t do any of that stuff.

But then you’ve got people in Congress, and they’re able to trade stocks despite being able to implement policies that can] drastically affect the market. They can essentially manipulate a stock.

Crosby is spot-on. Like insider traders who have inside information on a particular company, its products or services, and/or any other important information known only by “insiders,” congressional lawmakers have insight into pending legislation that might very well drive the price of a particular stock (or multiple stocks) up or down. That said, the quickest way to make “a lot” — or “lose a lot” — of money is by participating in the options market, which is generally not recommended by stockbrokers (I was one for 27 years) to the faint of heart or those with insufficient assets to withstand potential substantial losses.

This brings us back to Pelosi.

I referenced the multi-millionaire and hypocrite extraordinaire Speaker, of course, because of her vociferous defense of the practice by members of Congress. The following RedState headlines tell the troubling tale:

More Pressure Applied to Pelosi to Stop a Corrupt Practice That Should’ve Been Illegal Long Ago

While the Elite Are Trying to Come Down on Redditors, Maybe People Should Be Looking at What Pelosi Just Did

There’s a Reason Pelosi Doesn’t Want Stock Restrictions on Lawmakers

The bottom line:

After ferociously defending, in effect, “insider trading” by members of Congress, Pelosi — under continuing pressure from both sides of the aisle — appeared to suggest in January she is open to a ban on stock trading by members of Congress, a stark shift from her previous stance that members and their families should be allowed to make such financial transactions.

Pelosi being Pelosi, she talked out of both sides of her hypocritical-as-hell mouth:

“I have great confidence in the integrity of my members [except Republican members]. They are remarkable. So when people talk about well, somebody might do this and somebody, I trust our members.

[But] to give a blanket attitude of we can’t do this and we can’t do that because we can’t be trusted, I just don’t buy into that. But if members want to do that, I’m OK with that.

Pathetic? Of course. (See: “Which way are the political winds blowing?”)

Incidentally, Madam Speaker and her husband Paul —who owns a San Francisco-based real estate and venture capital investment and consulting firm — have amassed an estimated net worth of somewhere between $46 million and more than $120 million, depending on the accuracy of various sources, despite Pelosi’s 33 years in Congress and current annual salary of $193,400.

In one questionable transaction, Paul Pelosi bought upwards of $1 million worth of Tesla call options in December. Weeks later, Joe Biden announced plans to replace the entire federal automobile fleet with electric vehicles, documents showed. It was not stipulated how many cars in the federal fleet would be Teslas. Nonetheless, Mr. Pelosi can exercise his share options as long as they remain above $500.

Piece of cake.

At the time of this writing, Tesla stock was trading at $916.30. For those of you keeping score at home, if the Pelosis sold their options at this price, they would realize a gain of $416.30 per share — more than 83 percent, in little more than one month.

Obviously, the Pelosis are “master” stock manipulators traders.