There is only one Republican on the House Select Committee on January 6, 2021: Rep. Liz Cheney.  That Speaker Nancy Pelosi picked Cheney to be on this committee suggests, arguably, an infraction of House protocol.  Typically, the Democrats on a committee are selected by the top House Democrat, in this case, Speaker Pelosi, and the committee Republicans are chosen by the top House Republican, in this case, Kevin McCarthy, House Republican leader.  Two Republicans, of the 211 House Republicans voted to create this select committee: Cheney (R[?]-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.).  There are 220 Democrats in the House, and four vacancies, this 117th Congress.

Speaker Pelosi gave herself the power to name eight members of the select committee, with GOP leader McCarthy to name five members.  The following are the speaker's other committee choices: Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair; Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.); Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.); Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.); Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.); Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.); and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).  (Note the presence of three members from California among Pelosi's eight choices.)

Liz Cheney said the following, on being a Pelosi choice for the January 6 committee:

What happened on January 6th can never happen again. Those who are responsible for the attack need to be held accountable and this select committee will fulfill that responsibility in a professional, expeditious and non-partisan manner.

Her statement also called January 6 occurrence "the most serious attack on our Capitol since 1814 — ignoring the  March 1, 1954 attack by Puerto Rican "nationalists" firing guns, wounding five members of Congress.

One need go no farther than to point to the speaker's selection of Cheney for the committee — and the inclusion of mendacious partisan Schiff on the committee — to dismiss any thought that it will probe the January 6 occurrence at the Capitol in a nonpartisan way.  Indeed, to regard Cheney any longer as a Republican, arguably, is to disregard political reality.

As of July 11, Rep. McCarthy has not named the five select committee members allotted to him, nor has he said whether he will name any Republicans to this (clearly) political maneuver by Pelosi.  And Pelosi has yet to announce a time frame for her kangaroo inquisition.  This writer, with a nod to the House Committee in Un-American Activities — popularly known as "HUAC" — believes that Pelosi's select committee merits a similar acronym: HUWAC, for House Un-Woke Activities Committee.

Kevin McCarthy (caricature by Donkey Hotey, CC BY 2.0 license.

The House Republican leadership should be aware that Pelosi is likely to cite newspaper references to January 6 to defend her (false) claim that her select committee will conduct itself in a nonpartisan manner.  She would be expected to comment that even The Wall Street Journal placed the blame for January 6 at the feet of Donald Trump.  In its lead editorial, "How Will Biden Govern?," January 20, 2021, the Journal agreed that Joe Biden "was right to blame Mr. Trump for contributing to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot[.]"  Indeed, Pelosi, or maybe Schiff — or any of the other seven Pelosi choices — will cite those words from the Journal's Inauguration Day editorial — without providing the rest of the sentence: "but comparing Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz to Joseph Goebbels is Trump-like excess."  (Jeez, couldn't the Journal have put it "leftist-like excess."  The left compared George W. Bush to Hitler, after all.)

Interestingly, we haven't seen a poll whether Republicans and independents think House GOP leader McCarthy should bow before Pelosi and name five Republicans to her inquisition panel.  This observer would counsel Mr. McCarthy: be careful lest you hand Pelosi the sword to wield against you.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.