Hang an “I don’t get it” sign on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The San Francisco Democrat (actually, San Francisco roots explain a lot) wants to form up a posse and set off after the evildoers fomenting opposition to the Ground Zero mosque.
“There is no question there is a concerted effort to make this a political issue by some,” she told a hometown radio interview Tuesday.
“And I join those who have called for looking into how is this opposition to the mosque being funded . . . How is this being ginned up . . .?”
Now, if she succeeded in rounding up the obvious suspects, polls suggest she’d have more than 60 percent of the American public in custody.
And there’s not much “ginning up” going on, either. Americans are understandably suspicious of the motives and means of the mosque project — mostly because its developers adamantly refuse to discuss either.
Given that — plus all that’s transpired since Sept. 10, 2001 — it shouldn’t surprise that opposition to the mosque is a default position for a lot of Americans.
Now, it’s possible that Pelosi has some secret poll suggesting that her position is a political winner.
More likely, she’s so detached from reality (see above, her San Francisco base) that she really doesn’t grasp the potential damage siccing investigators on mosque opponents could do to politically vulnerable members of her House majority.
Time will tell about that.
Far more troubling, frankly, is the appearance of the most powerful woman in American government attempting to stifle dissent by raising the specter of an “investigation.”
Has the lady never heard of the First Amendment?
That’s the section of the Constitution that guarantees Americans the right to engage — even to foment — “concerted efforts to make . . . political issues” out of perceived political grievances.
Exactly who, we wonder, would conduct Pelosi’s probe?
The House?
The FBI?
Some other agency of the US government?
Mayor Bloomberg was content merely to pronounce opposition to the mosque shameful.
Nancy Pelosi is headed straight for the fever swamps, and she’s dragging the First Amendment in with her.
She needs to get a grip.