PICK THE MEMBERS OF THE JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE LIVE ON TV, AND ASK EACH POTENTIAL MEMBER ONE QUESTION

Politico has a story about the proposed select committee on the January 6 Capitol riots, in which we're told that there are potential staffing problems that -- wow! -- nobody could have foreseen!

Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have the final say over the panel’s GOP members, assuming House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appoints them at all. But many in her caucus are still anxious about the prospect of Republicans starting another bitter fight by trying to appoint members who voted against certifying President Joe Biden’s win on Jan. 6.

Even worse, in their minds, would be GOP riot investigators who some Democrats view as having abetted the attack.

Pelosi has "final say" -- so will she use her power to prevent conspiracy-theory endorsers (and actual conspiratorialists) from sitting on the panel? It's complicated!

The speaker declined to say Tuesday whether she would veto any GOP select panel members who opposed certifying Biden's victory.

Of course she should veto any panel members who opposed certifying Biden's victory! Obviously!

Draw a firm line in the sand and stick to it. That's what Republicans do all the time. Many of their lines in the sand are reprehensible: We can't possibly hold a hearing on a Democratic president's Supreme Court nominee in the last year of his term! But of course we can confirm a Republican president's High Court appointee mere weeks before an election!

The public doesn't know what's appropriate. Republican take advantage of this lack of knowledge by asserting that whatever they want to do is appropriate, and then holding firm; eventually, the public just accepts that that's the way things ought to be. In this case, Democrats would be right to ban election truthers. So McCarthy's chess move will probably be to name only election truthers, including some of the worst of the worst. Pelosi will respond by accepting some of them. Advantage GOP.

Pelosi should finalize the selection of panel members by scheduling a public, televised hearing in which each potential member is asked one question: Who won the 2020 presidential election?

If you don't immediately answer "Joe Biden," you're out. If you hesitate, you're out. If you offer qualifications, you're out.

And don't try this dodge:

Notably, not every Democrat said it would be problematic for any Republicans who voted against certifying Biden’s win on Jan. 6 to serve on the select panel.

Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.) said she has spoken with several Republicans who opposed certification on the floor — because, “in the heat of the moment, [they] had planned to take that vote and took that vote” — but now publicly affirm Biden as the president.

“I would be more concerned about what their approach is now than a decision they made in a vote on Jan. 6,” Kuster said.

They "now publicly affirm Biden as the president"? That's not good enough. That's how a lot of Republicans are trying to have it both ways: They concede that Joe Biden is the president without conceding that he won the election. The message they're trying to send to the MAGA voters in their base is: Yes, because the Deep State and the radical Marxist Democrat Party have seized control as part of their fiendish plan to destroy America, Joe Biden is now the president, but he shouldn't be, because he didn't win the election.

Nope. Acknowledge Biden's win unhesitatingly or begone.