The parting shot from the Pelosi Inquisition Panel, calling for criminal charges against President Trump and attorney John Eastman, and for Representatives Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, and Andy Biggs to be brought before the House Ethics Committee, makes obvious what the 118th Congress must do first on Convening Day, January 3, 2023: The House must restore the American spirit of liberty and the rule of law. To that end, it must announce that it will nullify everything the House Select Committee on January 6 did. The justification is that the panel, which quickly went rogue under Nancy Pelosi’s speakership, from its formation to its conduct, violates H. Res. 503 (the resolution that created that panel).

If Kevin McCarthy becomes the next House speaker and is committed to restoring the principles of liberty and democratic government to the House of Representatives, he will lead the House in removing the stain of totalitarian rule his infamous predecessor left at the speaker’s podium. There are at least three further actions the next House must take to remove, fully, the totalitarianism that entered the House Chamber to make it clear that never again will the House of Representatives turn the committee process into a fiercely partisan weapon with an anti-democratic goal.  

Image: Kevin McCarthy. YouTube screen grab.

The House must establish a legal defense fund to reimburse attorney’s fees to all victims of Pelosi’s political misrule. It must make a rule that, when members violate House resolutions, that is a ground for dismissal. Doing so will fill the gap created when craven courts failed to demand that House committees honor the terms of their organizing resolutions—a failure that gave Pelosi license to act without regard to House rules.

The third action the House must take on January 3 is to demand that, for those people still languishing in jail on January 6 charges, bail be set at no more than $1,000, with the additional proviso that anyone who has been in custody for more than four months must be released pending trial.

President Trump has called for House Republicans to elect McCarthy as the next speaker of the House. If McCarthy is unwilling to act to clean Pelosi’s Aegean stable and fails to take effective action to denounce the fact that January 6 prisoners continue to be held as political prisoners, he must not be elected the next House speaker.

Why not? Because, if McCarthy is unwilling to restore the American spirit of liberty and democratic rule to the House, he will be announcing to Donald J. Trump and his MAGA millions: “Gotcha. I am part of the deep state opposed to government of, by, and for the people.”

However, if Kevin McCarthy is on the side of the angels, he could do no worse than to name Rep. Andy Biggs as House czar to cleanse the federal bureaucracy of partisan stench.

Mr. McCarthy—are you with a free people—or against us?