Nancy Pelosi has said that she could have arrested Karl Rove. She is, of course, wrong.

She was referring to the fact that a House committee voted to send a contempt resolution against Mr. Rove to the full House. The House never voted on the matter, so he was never held in contempt. The power to arrest him depended on that vote.

Why should we expect her to understand the Rules of the House when she was amazed by a question about the constitutionality of Obamacare? She is for the voters of her district the living embodiment of H. L Mencken’s definition of democracy—the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

UPDATE–Karl Rove respond. Video here.

You know, she sounds a little bit like Inspector Clouseau and a little bit about the Mad Red Queen, but Speaker Pelosi was dead wrong in her assertion today and I’m sure she had a good laugh and it’s nice to know that she dreams of slapping me in her own personal jail. But she didn’t have any authority to do it.

UPDATE 2–Erika Johnsen notes another difference between Karl Rove and Eric Holder. Whatever Mr. Rove did to cause a Congressional committee to cite him did not cause a single death.